TILE  DRAINAGE 
W.I.  Chamberlain 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFOBWA 
DAVIS 


TV\iE 


v 

(P^^aw^MW^    '  Wy>P^- 


By  W.  I.  Chamberlain,  A.  M.,  LL.  D. 


ly  Scci •  lie  Ohio  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  and  late  Presi- 

dent of  the  Iowa  State  Agricultural  College.    At  present 
Associate  Editor  of  the  Ohio  Farmer. 


BTT     -A..     I.     K>OOT. 


1392. 


Price  35  Cts.;  By  Mail  40  Cts. 


TILE  DRAINAGE, 


-OH- 


WHY,  WHERE,  WHEN,  AND  HOW  TO 
DRAIN  LAND  WITH  TILES. 


A  PRACTICAL  BOOK  FOR  PRACTICAL 
FARMERS. 


By  W.   I.   CHAMBERLAIN,   A.  M.,  LL.   D., 

Formerly  Secretary  of    the  Ohio  State  Board    of  Agriculture,  and  late 
President   of  the  Iowa   Slate  Agricultural  College. 


'Tiles  are  political  economists.    They  are  so  many  young"  Americans, 
announcing*  a  belief  era  and  a  day  of   fat  tiling's." 

—RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 


A.   I.  ROOT,  Medina,  O. 
1891. 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


CHAPTER  I.— INTRODUCTORY. 


The  Scope  of  the  Book. 

This  little  book  on  tile  drainage  is  to  join  the  ranks  of  lit- 
tle books,  or  practical  science-) -rimers,  on  agricultural  sub- 
jects, written  by  such  men  as  Prof.  A.  J.  Cook,  A.  I.  Root, 
and  T.  B.  Terry,  and  published  by  A.  I.  Root.  It  will  feel 
honored  to  appear  in  such  company,  and  will  try  very  hard 
to  be  worthy  of  it. 

Please  remember  that  the  book  is  on  tile  drainage  It  does 
not  try  nor  wish  to  cover  all  drainage  ;  much  less  all  related 
subjects.  There  are  several  good  reasons  for  this.  One  is, 
that  the  size  of  the  book  is  fixed  by  the  publisher,  and  he 
wishes  it  to  be  actually  a  u  primer,'  both  in  its  size  and  in 
the  clearness  and  conciseness  of  its  instruction.  Another 
reason  is,  that  drainage  is  a  progressive  science  and  art. 
Much  has  been  learned  in  the  past  hundred  years.  The  old- 
er, larger  books  on  drainage  contain  vast  amounts  of  matter 
that  is  as  useless  now  as  an  eighteenth-century  chemistry  or 
a  last  year's  almanac.  It  is  a  mercy  that  the  readers  of  this 
little  book  need  not  plod  through  it.  Tile  drainage  has  su- 
perseded all  other  kinds  of  underdrainage,  as,  for  example, 
that  with  poles,  rails,  slabs,  brush,  cobble  stones,  or  with  the 
mole-plow.  It  is  immensely  better  than  any  of  these ;  more 
durable,  more  efficient,  and  really  cheaper  in  the  long  run. 
It  is  really  cheaper,  too,  than  open  ditching,  except  for  very 
large  receiving  ditches,  such,  for  example,  as  long,  large 
township  or  county  ditches,  to  convey  the  surplus  water  of 
hundreds  or  even  thousands  of  acres  of  pretty  level  land, 
owned  by  many  farmers,  in  separate  farms. 


4  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

Another  reason  why  this  little  book  does  not  contain  all 
knowledge  on  this  and  related  topics  is  the  fact  that' its  au- 
thor does  not  possess  all  knowledge!  What  'he  does  not 
know  is  omitted.  It  would  make  quite  a  book— indeed, 
quite  a  library. 

There  are  other  reasons  why  he  confines  this  book  closely 
to  tile  drainage,  and  even  to  the  best  and  most  recent  knowl- 
edge and  practice  on  that  subject ;  but  these  will  suffice. 
Motley,  in  "  The  Dutch  Republic,'1  says  that,  when  the  hat- 
ed Duke  of  Alva  entered  a  certain  city  of  the  Netherlands, 
no  military  salute  was  fired,  as  would  have  been  proper ; 
but,  instead,  a  deputation  from  the  city  fathers  appeared  be- 
fore him  saying  they  had  come  to  give  thirty-nine  good  and 
sufficient  reasons  for  the  failure.  'First,  they  had  no  can- 
non; second,  they  had  no  powder;  third— but  the  duke 
waived  the  recital  of  the  other  thirty-seven  reasons. 

Tile  drainage,  and  that,  too,  with  round  tiles  (round  inside 
and  round  or  octagonal  outside),  is  now  admitted  by  all  who 
are  well  informed  on  the  subject  to  be  the  best  and  really 
the  cheapest  sort  of  drainage  for  soils  that  need  artificial 
drainage.  Tiles  can  be  made  from  the  local  soil  and  subsoil 
at  or  near  all  localities  that  need  tile  drainage.  Properly 
made,  burned,  and  laid,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  tiles  and 
the  drains  should  not  last  for  centuries,  while  all  other  kinds 
of  underdrains  soon  rot,  choke,  are  spoiled  by  land  or  water 
vermin,  or  for  other  cause  become  practically  useless.  To 
dwell  on  any  of  these  kinds  of  drains,  explaining  their  con- 
struction, would  be  like  describing  to  an  inquiring  road- 
traveler  the  angles,  landmarks,  and  windings  of  the  wrong 
road. 

This  little  book,  therefore,  will  not  go  into  curious '" ancient 
history1'  on  the  subject,  but  from  first  to  last  will  try  to  give 
just  so  much  of  present,  well-established  facts,  reasons,  and 
methods,  as  shall  enable  the  wide-awake,  thinking,  studying 
farmer  to  understand  the  underlying  principles  and  the  best 
present  methods,  and  enable  him  to  put  them  into  practice. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  5 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  for  me  to  say  that  I  have  been 
a  practical  student  of  drainage  for  fully  forty  years,  having 
dug  and  laid  for  my  father  my  first  cobble-stone  drain  forty 
years  ago  this  spring,  and  having  laid  more  or  less  tile  drains 
nearly  every  year  for  the  past  26  years.  With  my  own  hand, 
on  my  own  farm,  I  have  laid  nearly  fifteen  miles  of  tiles, 
giving  thorough  drainage  to  nearly  65  acres;  .that  is,  with 
main  drains  wherever  they  were  needed,  and  with  laterals 
chiefly  two  rods  apart;  but  on  l.s  acres,  three  rods  apart; 
also  that  I  have  done  this  work  while  in  debt,  in  order  to  get 
out  of  debt,  with  necessarily  strict  economy,  and  with  real 
pecuniary  advantage.  I  am  not,  therefore,  likely  to  advise 
extravagant  or  unwise  expense.  I  have  also  carefully  ex- 
amined the  drainage  systems  of  many  of  the  best  farms  in 
the  land,  including  those  of  John  Johnst  »n,  the  pioneer  in 
tiling  in  America ;  that  of  his  son-in-law,  Robt,  J.  Swan, 
both  of  Geneva,  N.  Y. ;  T.  B.  Terry,  of  Ohio ;  Sisson  Bros  , 
of  Illinois ;  the  Agricultural  College  farms  of  Iowa  and 
Michigan,  and  had  charge  of  the  thorough  drainage  of  the 
new  State  Fair-grounds,  Columbus,  O.,  90  acres.  This  little 
book  is  not,  therefore,  a  compilation  of  matter  drawn  from 
other  books  or  cyclopaedias,  but,  it  is  hoped,  a  clear,  concise, 
and  systematic  statement  of  important  facts  tand  principles 
drawn  chiefly  from  its  writer's  own  actual  experience  or  ver- 
ified knowledge.  It  is  conscientiously  written  by  a  practical 
farmer  for  practical  farmers  who  really  heed  to  u tile-out" 
certain  portions  of  their  farms,  and  to  do  it  at  the  lowest 
cost  consistent  with  accuracy  and  thoroughness.  It  is  writ- 
ten with  the  strong  hope  that  it  may  show  more  clearly  why 
we  tile  at  all,  where  it  will  pay,  and  when  and  how  it  may  be 
done  most  economically  and  best ;  also  in  the  hope  that  it  may 
remove  some  of  the  needless  difficulties  and  mysteries 
thrown  around  the  subject  by  experts  and  engineers  in  order, 
it  would  seem  (alas  that  it  need  be  said  !)  "to  bring  grist  to 
their  own  mills/' 

And  yet,  as  will  be  seen  further  on,  the  writer  advises  the 


6  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

employment  of  a  civil  engineer  to  establish  grades  and  lev- 
els in  all  complicated  cases;  also  always,  if  possible,  the 
employment  of  a  real,  practical  expert  at  digging,  grading, 
and  laying  tiles,  at  least  for  a  few  days  at  the  first,  until  the 
farmer  shall  himself  learn  from  him  just  how  to  handle  the 
various  necessary  tools,  establish  the  grade,  cut  the  true 
groove  for  the  tiles,  and  lay  and  cover  them  properly.  That 
is  how  I  learned. 

For  quite  a  number  of  years  I  have  written  considerably 
upon  the  subject  of  tile  drainage  for  various  leading  agri- 
cultural weeklies,  chiefly  7  Vie  Country  Gentleman,  The  Ohio 
Farmer,  The  Rural  New-Yorker,  and  the  National  Stockman 
and  Farmer.  In  this  little  work  I  shall  not  consciously  bor- 
row, even  from  my  own  articles  there,  except  in  the  way  of 
occasional  direct  quotations  wilh  due  credit.  Those  articles 
were  on  particular  parts  of  the  subject,  and  often  in  answer 
to  specific  questions  from  readers.  This  primer  tries  to  be  a 
brief  but  complete  and  systematic  discussion  of  the  entire 
subject;  and  it  tries  to  present  the  underlying  scientific 
principles  involvedvso  clearly  that  its  readers  not  only  may 
but  must  understand  them. 

A  single  caution  :  It  will  be  necessary,  often,  to  use  the 
two  similar  words  tiling  (tile-draining)  and  tilling  (cultivat- 
ing). When  the  writer  uses  the  first  he  begs  that  neither 
printer  nor  reader  will  substitute  the  other  for  it,  or  vice 
versa.  It  kills  the  meaning  every  time.  Also  the  two  words 
undrained  and  underd.raincd  look  alike,  but  mean  the  exact 
opposite  of  each  other.  Do  not  confound  them. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  7 

CHAPTER  II. 

Why  do  we  Tile-drain  Land?     The  Theory. 

We  drain  land  to  remove  surplus  moisture,  and  to  fit  it  for 
tillage  and  rotation  of  crops  and  possible  horticulture.  If 
there  is  no  surplus  moisture  because  the  land  is  already 
underdrained  by  nature,  as  in  the  case  of  sandy  loams  with 
porous  subsoil,  then  it  does  not  need  tile  drainage.  A  letter 
lately  received  says:  "  I  don't  understand.  Does  all  land 
need  tile  drainage  V  "  This  is  no  worse  than  Horace  Gree- 
ley,  who  evidently  believed  that  u  the  pen  is  mightier  than 
the"— plow  or  spade,  and  hence  farmed  and  drained  chiefly 
and  with  best  financial  results  with  the  former  implement ! 
He  used  to  say,  in  substance,  that  "  whatever  land  it  will 
pay  to  till,  it  will  also  pay  to  tile."  By  no  means.  You 
might  as  well  insist  on  picking  off  stones  where  there  are 
none,  or  grubbing  out  stumps  on  prairie  land  that  never  saw 
a  tree,  as  upon  removing  surplus  water  down  through  the 
soil  by  tile  drains  from  land  where  nature  has  already  re- 
moved it  down  through  the  soil  without  tile  drains.  Indeed, 
Nature  was  so  liberal  with  us  in  the  creation  of  our  great 
national  domain  that  probably  present  prices  of  land  in  Ohio 
will  not  justify  the  thorough  drainage  (•*'.  e.,  with  full  system 
of  laterals)  of  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  farms  in  Ohio,  un- 
less it  be  for  purposes  of  market-gardening  or  specially  high 
farming ;  but  a  very  large  portion  of  the  Western  Reserve 
needs  it  through  depressions,  "swales,"  "draws,"  or 
"  sloughs."  It  is  the  surplus  water  that  needs  to  be  removed 
promptly,  and  it  should  be  removed  down  through  the  soil,  and 
not  along  its  surface.  Each  of  these  points  should  be  clearly 
understood;  and  so  we  will  at  once  consider  each  separately. 

First,  then,  it  is  the  surplus  water  that  needs  to  be  re- 
moved to  give  best  results  in  tillage,  crop  growth,  and  rota- 
tion. What  is  surplus  water?  It  is  the  water  of  heavy  rains 


TILE  DRAINAGE. 


or  snows  that  soak  the  soil  into  mud,  filling  all  its  pores  full, 
and  standing  stagnant  on  or  in  the  soil.  In  spring  and  sum- 
mer it  stands  in  depressions  until  it  evaporates.  In  fall  and 
winter  it  stands  and  freezes  and  thaws.  In  either  case  it 
injures  or  perhaps  ruins  the  crops.  Thousands  of  acres  of 
wheat  in  Ohio  and  other  States  during  the  past  wet  winter 
(1890-91)  have  been  killed  thus  by  too  much  cold  water ;  and 
the  epitaph  might  be,  "  Died  of  wet  feet.7'  "  Seeing  is  be- 
lieving," and  I  have  seen  it  from  car-windows  for  hundreds 
of  miles,  the  dry  knolls  and  slopes  having  good  wheat ;  the 
wet  depressions  or  flat  surfaces  having  little  or  none.  Nor 
does  water  have  to  stand  upon  the  surface  to  kill  or  greatly 

ODE  F 


FIG.  2 

-Capillary  attraction  in  small  tubes.    The  smaller  the  tube 
the  higher  the  water  rises  in  it. 

Fig.  2.— Capillary  attraction  between  divergent  surfaces— of  glass  for 
example— opened  like  the  cover  of  a  book. 

damage  the  crops.  If  it  stands  stagnant  in  the  soil,  saturat- 
ing it,  that  is,  soaking  all  the  pores  completely  full,  it  does 
almost  equal  damage ;  for  the  roots  of  our  agricultural 
plants  need  air  as  well  as  moisture,  and  must  have  it.  If 
long  deprived  of  it  they  dwindle  or  even  die.  The  moisture 


TILE  DBAINAGE.  9 

that  they  need  is  held  UP  in  the  soil  by  what  is  called  u  capil- 
lary attraction."  Capillary  attraction  is  the  force  of  adhesion 
betwe3n  liquids  and  solids  which  makes  water  rise  in  small 
or  "hairlike"  tubes;  for  "capillary1'  comes  from  a  Latin 
word  which  means  hairlike.  If  several  small  glass  tubes, 
open  at  both  top  and  bottom,  and  of  different  sizes  (diame- 
ters), have  their  lower  ends  standing  in  a  dish  of  water,  then 
the  water  will  rise  in  them  above  the  surface  of  the  water  in 
which  they  stand ;  and  the  smaller  the  tubes  are,  the  higher 
the  water  will  rise  in  them.  Fig.  1  illustrates  this.  Let  the 
line  AB  represent  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  0,  D,  E,  and 
F,  represent  small  glass  tubes.  The  water  will  rise  in  them 
to  different  heights,  proportioned  inversely  to  the  diameters, 
as  shown  in  the  figures.  The  same  thing  may  be  shown  be- 
tween plane  surfaces  close  together.  Set  two  panes  of  glass 
into  a  pan  of  water  vertically,  with  two  vertical  edges  joined 
and  their  sides  diverging  like  a  thin  book  set  on  end  and 
opened  just  a  little.  The  water  will  rise  between  them  and 
be  highest  close  to  where  the  edges  meet,  as  shown  in  Fig.  2. 

The  point  is,  that  water  rises  in  small  tubes  or  between 
close  surfaces,  and  remains  above  the  level  of  its  source.  The 
tubes  need  not  be  round  or  smooth  or  straight.  They  need 
not  be  tubes  at  all,  but  simply  small  connected  open  spaces 
between  some  sort  of  material  surfaces.  For  example,  the 
wick  of  a  lamp  is  a  small  bundle  of  crooked  capillary  spaces 
or  pores,  and  the  wick  lifts  the  oil  in  the  lamp  to  the  top  of 
the  wick.  The  flame  does  not  "draw"  it.  It  simply  con- 
sumes it  as  the  capillary  attraction  lifts  it.  A  fine  sponge, 
with  its  lower  end  in  water,  lifts  the  water  all  through  its 
own  pores.  You  pour  water  into  the  "saucer"  of  your 
flower-pot,  and  capillary  attraction  lifts  the  water  (entering 
at  the  hole  in  the  pot)  all  through  its  soil.  In  the  same  way 
the  water  in  the  soil  of  a  field  is  drawn  to  or  near  the  sur- 
face to  supply  vegetation  in  a  dry  time.  It  cnmes  from  the 
water  stored  deeper  down  in  a  wet  time. 

But  the  soil,  like  a  sponge,  has  some  spaces  or  pores  too 


10  TILE  DKAIKAGE. 

large  for  capillary  attraction  to  hold  the  water  in  them  up  to 
or  near  the  surface.  These  larger  ones  are  filled  with  air, 
and  must  be,  or  plants  will  die.  If  you  plunge  a  sponge 
wholly  into  water  (submerge  it)  these  proper  air-spaces  are 
filled  with  water;  and  if  a  tenacious  clayey  soil  is  not  tile- 
drained,  then  in  a  very  wet  time  it  is  in  effect  plunged  in 
water.  Its  needed  air-spaces  are  filled  with  water.  Plant- 
roots  can  get  no  air  until  the  surplus  water  is  removed.  A 
soil  full  of  water  is  as  unfit  for  work  as  a  man  full  of  some- 
thing stronger.  A  simple  experiment  proves  this.  Plant 
peas  or  corn  in  a  tight  pot  or  pail,  and  keep  the  soil  just  cov- 
ered with  water.  The  peas  or  corn  will  not  grow. 

"Capillary  water"  and  ''hydrostatic  water."  It  will  be 
convenient  to  use  both  of  these  terms  frequently  in  this 
book,  in  a  technical  sense.  Let  us  therefore  agree  what  that 
technical  sense  shall  be.  Capillary  water,  as  this  little  book 
will  use  the  term,  is  the  water  which  is  brought  from  below 
in  the  soil  and  subsoil,  up  to  or  near  the  surface,  by  capillar- 
ity or  capillary  attraction  ;  as  when  a  tile-drained  or  natural- 
ly drained  soil  is  moist  near  to  the  surface  long  after  rain. 
This  is  the  proper  condition  for  plant-growth. 

Hydrostatic  water  is  that  which  fills  the  large  pores  of  a 
sponge,  for  example,  when  it  is  submerged  in  water,  and  the 
large  pores  in  any  soil  just  after  sudden  drenching  rain,  or 
of  an  undrained  clayey  soil,  sometimes  for  days  or  weeks 
after  heavy  rains.  Capillary  water  is  a  blessing  and  even  a 
necessity  in  agriculture.  Hydrostatic  water,  or  the  water 
of  complete  saturation,  is  a  great  damage  if  continued  many 
hours,  and  a  fatal  thing  to  crops  if  continued  many  days. 
It  is  the  purpose  and  the  actual  result  of  tile  drainage  to 
remove  the  hydrostatic  water,  the  damage,  and  leave  the 
capillary  water,  the  blessing.  In  untiled  clayey  soils  the 
hydrostatic  water  sometimes  stands  up  or  nearly  up  to  the 
surface  of  the  ground  for  several  days  after  the  rain  ceases. 
When  every  u  cradle-hole,"  or  surface  depression,  even  on 
rolling  or  sloping  land,  stands  full  of  water,  you  may  know 


TILE  DKAINAGE.  11 

that  the  hydrostatic  water  is  at  or  near  the  surface  all 
through  the  soil.  When  water  oozes  frc  m  the  ground,  as  on 
slopes,  you  may  know  that  gravity  (hydrostatic  pressure)  is 
forcing  it  out  here  from  a  higher  level. 

In  a  dry  time  the  hydrostatic  water  sinks  several  inches  or 
even  feet  below  the  surface  in  land  not  tiled  or  drained  by 
nature.  This  is  because  the  capillaries  have  previously 
carried  it  to  the  surface,  and  the  hot  dry  atmosphere  has 
evaporated  and  absorbed  it,  as  will  be  seen  presently.  You 
can  find  just  how  near  to  the  surface  the  hydrostatic  water 
stands  at  any  time,  simply  by  digging  a  hole  in  the  ground. 
The  hole  will  soon  fill  up  to  the  top  level  of  complete  satura- 
tion ;  i.e.,  of  hydrostatic  water  in  the  ground.  In  a  wet 
time  this  hole  may  be  a  mere  post-hole,  and  may  stand  full 
to  the  very  surface.  In  a  very  dry  time  the  "hole"  will 
need  to  be  a  deep  well,  perhaps.  But  the  surface-water  in 
each  will  show  the  top  level  of  the  hydrostatic  water  that  is 
within  reach  of  hydrostatic  pressure  ;  for  hydrostatic  press- 
ure and  capillarity  are  constantly  opposing  forces.  One 
pushes  the  water  down  ;  the  other  lifts  it  up.  One  is  simply 
the  force  of  gravity  acting  on  the  water.  The  other  is  a 
kind  of  adhesive  attraction  between  the  water  and  the 
sides  of  the  pores  in  the  soil.  Where  these  pores  are  very 
large,  as  in  gravel  or  coarse  sand,  there  gravity  acts  nearly 
unobstructed,  and  hence  rapidly  and  over  long  distances  ; 
and  so  the  sand  or  gravel  "  veins  "  or  seams  in  clay  subsoils 
are  the  "  water-bearing  strata ??  for  wells  and  springs,  and 
bring  water  into  them  rapidly,  and  often  from  long  distances. 
If  a  tight  tube  or  curb  is  inserted  in  the  well  or  spring,  the 
water  will  quickly  rise  to  the  level  of  its  source,  even  if  that 
is  many  rods  away,  and  the  filtration  in  such  coarse  sand  is 
imperfect.  In  a  hamlet  in  Switzerland,  all  who  drank  from 
a  certain  spring  had  typhoid  fever.  It  was  traced  to  the  ex- 
cretions of  a  typhoid  patient,  which  were  thrown  out  witli 
slops  upon  the  ground,  over  half  a  mile  distant,  and  over 
quite  a  hill.  Proof  positive  was  given  by  pouring  a  large 


12 


TILE  DEAINAGE. 


quantity  of  salt  brine  upon  the  spot  where  the  excretions  had 
been  thrown.  The  water  in  the  spring  soon  became  percepti- 
bly salt  in  taste.  Fig.  3  illustrates  this. 


Fig.  3.— Imperfect  filtration  by  coarse  sand  and  gravel  as  water-bear- 
ing strata.  The  spring  that  furnished  water  to  the  hamlet  was  at  B; 
the  typhoid-soil  pollution  at  A,  about  half  a  mile  distant.  Results  as 
given  in  the  text. 

In  this  way  gravel  veins  in  clayey  subsoils  and  artesian 
wells  are  explained.  The  "  head  "  of  water  is  higher,  and  at 
a  distance,  and  is  connected  with  the  place  where  the  arte- 
sian well  is  dug,  by  a  deep  coarse  sand  or  gravel  stratum. 
Fig.  4  illustrates  this. 

A 


Fig.  4.— Artesian  well.  A  to  D  is  a  coarse  gravel  and  sand  stratum 
between  nearly  impervious  strata  of  clay.  Artesian  well  B  D,  drilled 
and  tubed  down  to  D.  If  it  is  tubed  up  to  C,  and  the  stratum  A  D  is 
saturated  clear  up  to  A,  then  the  hydrostatic  pressure  will  force  the 
water  in  the  tube  up  to  a  level  at  C.  If  tubed  only  to  the  surface  at  B 
it  will  make  a  flowing,  or  artesian  well, 


TILE  DKAINAGE.  13 

But  where  the  pores  in  the  soil  and  subsoil  are  very  small, 
with  few  of  the  larger  spaces,  the  hydrostatic  pressure  is 
nearly  overcome  by  capillarity,  and  hence  is  very  slow  in  its 
action.  This  is  the  case  in  compact  and  tenacious  clayey 
soils,  especially  when  not  tiled.  The  water  from  heavy  rains 
and  snows  is  a  long  time  in  soaking  into  and  through  the 
ground,  almost  making  impossible  the  profitable  tillage  and 
growing  of  root  crops  and  cereals ;  for,  first,  the  soil  can  not 
be  tilled  early  enough  in  spring  nor  soon  enough  after  each 
rain  for  good  results ;  and,  second,  the  top  level  of  complete 
saturation  (hydrostatic  water)  is  so  near  the  surface  of  the 
ground  that  the  plants  get  little  depth  of  root.  On  damp 
clays,  maple  and  apple  tree  roots  run  almost  or  quite  on 
the  surface,  not  for  lack  of  plant  food,  but  from  too  much 
water.  "  Drowned  out,"  we  say  correctly. 

Second.  The  first  point  just  made,  is,  that  surplus  mois- 
ture must  be  removed.  The  second,  now  to  be  considered,  is, 
that  it  must,  to  secure  real  success,  be  removed  down  through 
the  soil  and  not  off  along  its  surface.  This  is  just  what  un- 
derdrainage  does  for  clayey  soils  and  subsoils;  and  so  the 
full  discussion  of  this  point  will  pretty  nearly  cover  the 
theory  and  state  the  facts  of  tile  drainage  ;  that  is,  will  an- 
swer the  question  that  stands  at  the  head  of  this  chapter ; 
viz.,  u  Why  do  we  tile-drain  land  ?  " 

The  point  we  wish  to  make  is,  that  the  surplus  water 
should  be  removed  down  through  the  soil,  as  by  tile  drainage, 
and  not  off  along  its  surface,  as  where  there  is  no  underdrain- 
age  natural  or  artificial.  The  following  are  a  few  of  the 
reasons : 

First,  because  it  makes  all  tillage  and  harvesting  opera- 
tions easier  and  more  rapid,  physically  and  mechanically. 
Surface  drainage  is  better  than  none ;  but  it  greatly  inter- 
feres with  all  farming  operations.  If  the  surface  drains  are 
natural,  that  is,  simply  made  by  water  action,  they  will  usu- 
ally be  crooked  brooks  or  gulleys,  cutting  up  the  field  into 
awkward  shapes  for  cultivation ,  as  in  Fig.  5.  This  repre- 


14 


TILE  DBAINAGE. 


sents  a  ten-acre  field  of  rolling  land,  which  is  cut  by  crooked 
gulleys  or  swales  into  four  irregular  patches,  A,  B,  C,  D, 
each  bounded  by  the  "  ragged  edge  "  of  a  crooked  swale,  and 
each  requiring  nearly  as  many  rounds  or  turnings  with  plow, 
harrow,  mower,  or  twine-binder,  as  the  whole  field  would 
take  if  handled  as  one  unobstructed  plat.  The  sides  along 
the  swales,  or  dry  brooks,  are  wet,  crooked,  and  non-tillable; 
the  angles  are  far  sharper  than  four  right  angles  of  the  field, 
far  more  vexatious  to  the  farmer,  and  much  more  likely,  as 
Dr.  Holmes  puts  it,  "  to  stir  up  the  monosyllables  of  his  un- 
sanctified  vocabulary !  " 


8 


D 


Fig.  5.— Ten-acre  field  with  crooked  "  swales,"  or  dry  brooks,  interfer- 
ing with  tillage.  For  explanation,  see  text. 

Now,  if  nothing  more  is  done  than  to  cut  straight,  open 
ditches,  as  indicated  by  the  dotted  lines,  and  if  only  the 
holes  and  hollows  of  the  winding  brooks  are  filled  and  grad- 
ed (see  Fig.  5),  even  this  improves  matteis  considerably. 
But  if  Ule  mains  are  laid  where  the  dotted  lines  run,  and 
such  laterals  are  put  in  as  the  nature  of  the  land  requires, 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  15 

then  these  depressions  thus  tiled  become  dry,  and  tit  for 
tillage  in  spring  time  earliest  of  any  part  of  the  field,  and 
soonest  after  heavy  rains,  and  the  whole  rectangular  field 
becomes  one  which  it  is  a  delight,  and  not,  as  formerly,  a 
weariness  and  irritation,  to  farm.  I  speak  from  actual  ex- 
perience here  as  elsewhere. 

Second.  Removing  the  surplus  water  down  through  the  soil 
by  means  of  tile  drainage  is  better  than  removing  it  over  the 
top  by  surface  drainage,  because  the  former  removes  all  the 
surplus,  not  only  that  on  the  surface,  but  that  in  the  soil 
and  subsoil.  Even  if  the  surplus  is  removed  from  the  sur- 
face, as  it  is  naturally  from  rolling  clayey  lands,  while  the 
soil  and  subsoil  are  still  soaked  full,  tillage  is  delayed,  and 
plant-growth  is  practically  suspended,  and  sometimes  the 
plants  actually  die.  As  before  remarked,  thousands  of 
acres  of  wheat  in  Ohio  were  thus  killed  during  the  past  win- 
ter of  1890. 

Third.  Removing  the  surplus  down  through  the  soil  by  tile 
drainage  is  best  because  it  prevents  loss  of  fertility  by  surface 
wash.  That  loss  from  clayey  lands  not  tiled  is  sometimes 
immense.  For  example,  the  report  of  the  Ohio  Meteorolog- 
ical Bureau  shows  that  nearly  ten  inches  of  rain  and  melted 
snow  fell  in  Hudson  during  February  and  March,  1891.  But 
nearly  all  that  amount  was  surplus  water,  to  be  removed  by 
some  sort  of  drainage  ;  for  the  ground  was  already  saturat- 
ed, too  wet,  at  the  beginning  of  February,  and  there  was 
very  little  sunshine  or  wind  to  evaporate  it,  and  little 
growth,  even  of  the  wheat,  to  use  the  moisture.  Indeed, 
the  wheat  would  have  been  better  without  a  quarter  as  much 
rain.  Now,  I  have  noticed  the  facts  on  my  own  wheat,  a 
little  over  20  acres.  Most  of  it  was  top-dressed  with  about 
12  loads  per  acre,  applied  on  a  part  of  it  with  the  wheat  last 
fall,  and  on  another  part  plowed  under  for  the  preceding 
crop,  and  brought  to  the  surface  when  the  land  was  plowed 
for  wheat.  Nearly  all  the  land  'is  thoroughly  tiled,  with  lat- 
erals, most  of  them  two  and  the  rest  three  rods  apart.  The 


16  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

tiles  handled  practically  all  that  water  down  through  the  soil, 
and  left  the  ground  not  at  nil  qn1lied  by  surface  wash,  and 
without  material  loss  of  fertility  from  manure  or  soil.  But 
how  fearful  would  have  been  the  loss  and  damage  except  for 
the  tile  drains!  Think  of  the  immense  amount  of  water 
that  fell  on  the  20  acres  in  those  5y  days  !  Almost  exactly  50 
Ibs.  on  each  square  foot,  or  21,780  tons  on  the  20  acres- 
enough  to  take  a  man  and  team  3£  years  to  cart  away,  draw- 
ing 21  tons  say  half  a  mile  each  working  day !  Without  the 
tile  drains,  ali  this  water  must  have  run  off  from  or  remain- 
ed stagnant  on  the  surface  of  an  already  over-saturated  soil. 
If  much  of  it  had  remained  on  it,  as  in  case  of  level  land 
with  depressions,  it  would  have  wholly  ruined  the  wheat, 
and  terribly  "puddled"  the  soil  and  damaged  its  texture. 
Or  if  it  had  run  off  rapidly,  as  from  quite  rolling  clayey  soil 
not  tiled,  it  would  have  gullied  the  land  badly,  and  caused 
immense  loss  of  fertility  by  washing  away  the  soluble  ele- 
ments of  plant  food  and  even  much  of  the  soil  itself.  But 
with  the  soil  thoroughly  tiled  it  did  not  gully  or  wash ;  and 
the  water,  filtering  down  through  the  soil  to  reach  the 
drains,  nearly  three  feet  deep,  left  these  soluble  elements  in 
the  soil  as  food  for  the  wheat  and  future  crops.  The  wheat 
"  survived  the  flood"  in  fine  condition.  The  drainage  was 
the  Noah's  ark  that  saved  b  >th  the  wheat  and  the  fertility. 

Fourth.  Removing  the  surplus  water  down  through  the  toil 
by  tile  drainage  is  best  because  it  adds  fertility  to  the  soil 
with  each  rainfall.  That  is,  it  not  only  prevents  loss  from 
surface  wash,  but  it  actually  secures  gain  from  the  rain. 
Falling  rain  water,  especially  during  thunder-storms,  con- 
tains some  available  nitrogen,  small  in  amount,  but  valua- 
ble. If  the  land  is  tiled,  the  soil  acts  as  a  filter,  and  arrests 
this  fertilizing  matter  and  holds  it  just  where  plant-roots 
can  get  it. 

Fifth.  Removing  the  surplus  water  down  through  the  soil 
by  means  of  tile  drainage  helps  to  warm  the  soil  as  well  as 
dry  it,  giving  best  condition  for  plant-growth.  It  warms  it 


TILE  DBAIHAGE.  17 

in  three  ways :  It  removes  the  surplus  water  which  other- 
wise, frozen  in  winter,  must  both  thaw  and  evaporate  in 
spring,  both  of  which  are  chilling  processes ;  second,  it  keeps 
the  air-spaces  open,  and  warm  air  ascends  in  winter  from 
the  subsoil,  always  warmer  in  winter  than  the  soil.  Third, 
through  these  open  air-spaces  warm  showers  soak  down  in 
spring  and  warm  the  soil. 

As  to  the  fiist  point,  thawing  and  evaporation  both  keep 
the  soil  and  the  adjacent  atmosphere  colder.  Thawing  ice, 
especially  by  heat  from  above,  is  a  slow  process.  Let  the 
water  freeze  solid  in  a  wooden  pump,  and  try  to  thaw  it 
with  hot  water  from  above,  and  you  will  be  convinced.  In 
spring  the  ice  on  and  in  an  undrained  soil  must  be  thawed  at 
an  immense  waste  of  sun-heat  which  would,  if  the  land  were 
drained,  be  used  in  warming  and  drying  the  soil,  and  in 
germinating  seeds,  in  that  case  already  sown.  This  thawing 
in  spring  takes  the  warmth  out  of  the  air  just  as  the  ice  in 
an  ice-cream  freezer,  melting  by  the  chemical  action  of  the 
salt,  requires  warmth  and  takes  it  from  the  cream,  freezing 
the  latter.  We  all  know,  too.  how  chilly  the  air  is  when 
snow  and  ice  are  thawing  in  the  fields  in  spring  time.  Thus 
the  mere  thawing  of  the  ice  on  and  in  a  saturated  clayey  soil 
may  delay  the  starting  and  growth  of  crops  a  full  week  or 
more  in  spring  time.  But,  now,  suppose  it  all  to  be  melted 
at  last.  It  must  still  be  evaporated  from  above  (nearly  all  of 
it  in  a  tenacious  undrained  clay  soil)  by  the  sun's  heat 
before  plowing,  planting,  growth,  and  tillage  can  begin ; 
and  evaporation  is  not  only  a  very  slow  process,  but  a  very 
cooling  one.  Wash  your  hands,  even  in  warm  water,  out- 
doors in  a  brisk  wind  (where  evaporation  is  rapid),  and  hold 
them  up  in  the  wind  and  you  will  see  how  quickly  they 
are  chilled.  We  sprinkle  pavements  and  porch  floors  in 
summer,  and  evaporation  cools  the  air.  Increased  evap- 
oration cools  the  air  after  a  summer  shower.  Boys  coming 
out  from  swimming  into  a  brisk  wind  are  chilled  by  the 
evaporation  from  their  wet  bodies. 


18  TILE  DBAINAGE. 

Many  other  illustrations  might  be  given  of  the  fact  that 
both  thawing  and  evaporation  are  very  cooling  processes. 
Undrained  clay  soils  are  called  ktcold  soils,"  and  sandy 
loams  are  called  u  warm  soils,"  partly  on  account  of  this 
thawing  and  this  drying  by  evaporation,  that  must  take 
place  on  the  former.  But  tile-draining  a  clayey  soil  saves 
these  two  wastes  of  heat,  and  makes  it  warm  earlier  in 
spring  and  warmer  by  several  degrees  than  the  vmdrained 
adjacent  soil  all  summer,  as  has  been  shown  by  careful  tests 
with  thermometers  placed  in  both  soils. 

The  second  way  in  which  underclrainage,  natural  or  arti- 
ficial, warms  the  soil  is  by  keeping  the  proper  air-spaces  (the 
larger  pores)  open  in  the  soil,  and  not  full  of  hydrostatic 
water,  or  ice  in  winter.  When  thus  open,  the  warmth  from 
the  warmer  subsoil  ascends  through  them  and  helps  to  warm 
the  soil.  Suppose  the  soil  is  frozen  But  the  subsoil  five 
feet  deep  will  be  about  50°  warm,  and  will  help  thaw  the 
frozen  soil,  which  is  about  20°  cooler.  If  the  air-spaces  are 
open  this  warmth  readily  ascends. 

The  third  point  under  this  fifth  general  head  was,  that 
tile  drainage  keeps  the  pores,  or  air-spaces,  open  for  the  de- 
scent of  the  warm  rains  of  spring  and  summer,  and  these 
carry  down  their  warmth  into  soil  and  subsoil,  liain  can 
not  descend  through  the  small  capillary  spaces.  They  are 
full  of  moisture  held  up  to  or  near  the  surface  by  capillary 
attraction.  But  in  the  larger,  proper  air-spaces,  capillarity 
does  not  oppose  gravitation,  and  the  warm  rain  sinks  rapid- 
ly and  warms  the  soil. 

As  to  frost  action,  it  is  a  curious  and  seemingly  paradox- 
ical fact  that  porous  soils  freeze  deeper  in  winter,  though 
they  thaw  earlier  in  spring.  Frost  goes  down  faster  when 
the  air-spaces  are  open,  just  as  warmth  goes  both  down  and 
up  more  readily,  as  has  been  seen.  If  you  are  skeptical  on 
this  point,  examine  the  two  kinds  of  soil  described,  or  try 
the  following  simple  experiment  in  winter  time.  Take  two 
large  sponges,  as  nearly  alike  as  may  be.  Wet  one  till  its 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  19 

capillaries  are  full  (and  its  proper  air-spaces  empty),  by  sim- 
ply dipping  its  lower  part  in  water.  Saturate  the  other  by 
submerging  it  in  a  small  tin  pail  of  water  as  nearly  the  size 
of  the  sponge  as  may  be.  Put  the  other  sponge  in  the  same 
sort  of  tin  pail,  only  perforated  like  a  colander.  Hang  the 
two  pails  (containing  the  sponges)  out  in  the  freezing  air. 
You  will  find  the  sponge  in  the  colander  pail  frozen  far  soon- 
er than  the  other.  It  would  freeze  deeper  if  long  and  sunk 
into  the  ground.  Now  set  both  pails  on  a  gridiron  or  wire 
support  over  a  stove  where  the  temperature  is  not  over  60 
or  70°,  like  the  spring  atmosphere.  The  aerated  sponge  in 
the  perforated  pail  will  be  thawed  long  before  the  other. 
Air  and  warmth  can  circulate  through  it.  It  is  honey-comb- 
ed. But  warmth  gets  access  to  the  other  sponge  only  at  the 
bottom,  and  air  only  at  the  top.  The  ice  in  an  ice-house 
keeps  well  if  the  air  is  kept  out.  It  melts  fast  if  air  gets  in 
and  honey-combs  it. 

Partly  as  inferences  from  or  corollaries  of  the  proofs  given 
in  our  fifth  proposition  above,  follow  both  our  sixth  and 
seventh. 

Sixth. — Removing  surplus  moisture  down  through  the  soil 
by  tile  drainage  lengthens  the  season  of  tillage,  crop  growth, 
and  harvest.  It  increases  it  in  spring,  as  already  seen,  by 
saving  the  time  and  sunheat  otherwise  simply  wasted  in 
thawing  and  drying  a  soaked  or  flooded  soil.  It  increases  it 
after  each  soaking  rain  of  the  crop  season  by  carrying  the 
surplus  water  quickly  downward  (with  its  warmth)  through 
the  open  air-spaces,  leaving  the  soil  ready  for  plant-growth, 
and  dry  enough  for  tillage  far  sooner  after  each  shower.  It 
increases  the  time  of  growth  and  harvest,  especially  of  late 
varieties  of  potatoes,  by  keeping  the  soil  dry  enough  for 
growth  and  digging,  even  after  the  heavy  rains  of  autumn 
begin  to  come. 

Seven th.— Tile  drainage  increases  the  extent  of  root  pasturage. 
Roots  of  most  trees  (except  water-elms,  willows,  soft  maples, 
and  other  swamp  and  lowland  trees)  and  of  most  agricultu- 


20 


TILE  DBAINAGE. 


ral  and  horticultural  crops  will  not  feed  below  the  top  level 
of  frequent  saturation.  Fart  of  my  apple  orchard  is  tiled, 
part  not.  On  the  untiled  part  the  roots  run  close  to  the  sur- 
face, get  less  nourishment,  are  more  disturbed  by  tillage 
operations,  and  over  four  times  as  many  have  died  out  or 
been  killed  by  tillage  as  in  the  tiled  part  immediately  adja- 


Fig.  6.—  Corn  roots,  sh allow  on  Fig.  7.  Corn  roots  running-  deep 
clayey  soil  not  tiled,  in  a  wet  in  a  tile-drained  soil,  he  the  sea- 
season,  son  wet  or  dry. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  21 

cent,  while  the  whole  appearance  is  less  thrifty.  Two  photo- 
engravings and  a  diagram  in  the  next  chapter  illustrate  this. 

Figures  6  and  7  are  fair  illustrations  of  corn  growth  on 
tiled  and  on  untiled  land.  In  6  the  line  A  B  is  the  top  level 
of  hydrostatic  water— frequent  saturation ;  arid  in  Fig.  7, 
C  D  is  the  line.  Now,  as  the  available  plant-food  of  the 
soil  is  diffused  all  through  the  pores  of  the  soil,  and  can  be 
taken  by  the  roots  only  by  actual  contact,  it  is  plain  that  an 
increased  depth  of  root-growth  means  an  increased  supply 
of  food  for  the  plant,  and  the  corn  shows  the  results  about 
as  shown  in  Figs.  6  and  7.  Tile  drainage  doubles  the  depth 
of  the  farm ;  or^  as  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  (quoted  by 
French)  aptly  puts  it  in  an  address  at  Concord,  Mass.,  "  This 
year  a  very  large  quantity  of  land  has  been  discovered  and 
added  to  the  agricultural  land,  and  without  a  murmur  of 
complaint  from  any  neighbor.  By  drainage  we  have  gone 
to  the  subsoil,  and  we  have  a  Concord  under  Concord,  a 
Middlesex  under  Middlesex,  and  a  basement  story  of  Massa- 
chusetts more  valuable  than  all  the  superstructure.  Tiles 
are  political  economists.  They  are  so  many  young  Ameri- 
cans, announcing  a  better  era  and  a  day  of  fat  things." 

My  friend  Mr.  T.  B.  Terry  and  I  are  both  fond  of  quoting, 
concerning  farming,  Daniel  Webster's  remark  about  real 
talent  in  law  practice ;  to  wit,  that  "  there  is  always  room 
in  the  upper  story."  But  tile  drainage,  according  to  Emer- 
son's apt  metaphor,  shows  to  every  owner  of  a  clayey  farm 
large  areas  of  valuable  unused  land  ;  "  room  in  the  lower 
story;"  nay,  in  the  very  basement! 

Eighth.— Removing  the  surplus  water  down  through  the 
soil  by  means  of  tile  drainage  helps  to  disintegrate  the  soil  and 
make  pulverization  possible.  I  have  already  spoken  of  the 
increased  disintegration  through  deeper  frost  action ;  but 
during  the  crop  season  the  surplus  moisture  must  be  re- 
moved before  we  can  "  pulverize "  with  tillage  imple- 
ments. The  exact  meaning  of  "  pulverize,"  as  its  Latin 
derivation  shows,  is  to  reduce  to  "dust"  or  fine  soft  pow- 


22  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

der.  But  surplus  water  in  the  soil  makes  mud,  the  opposite 
and  enemy  of  dust.  Further,  a  clayey  soil  long  kept  too 
wet  gets  "puddled,"  especially  if  tramped  by  live  stock  or 
worked  with  implements  when  too  wet.  This  means  the 
filling  and  destruction  of  the  air-spaces,  restored  only  by 
freezing  in  ridges,  or  by  tiling  and  tillage.  A  puddled  clay 
soil  dries  into  a  hard,  impervious,  brick-like  mass.  Tile 
drainage,  proper  tillage,  rotation  and  care,  and  keeping  live 
stock  off,  will  prevent  this  and  make  a  clayey  soil  more 
nearly  like  the  fertile  sandy  and  gravelly  loams,  naturally 
underdrained  and  adapted  to  tillage  and  rotation  of  crops. 

Ninlh.— This  brings  us  naturally  to  the  next  proposition ; 
viz.,  that  til$  drainage  of  soils  that  need  it  greatly  diminishes 
the  effect  of  frost  in  heaving  out  wheat,  clover,  etc  ,  in  winter 
and  spring.  The  action  of  frost  in  heaving  out  roots  and 
plants  is  powerful  and  very  peculiar,  and  closely  connected 
with  capillary  caction.  How  is  "  hoar-frost  "  or  "  stool-ice  " 
formed  V  Capillary  action  brings  moisture  to  the  surface  of 
the  ground,  but  can  take  it  no  further,  for  that  is  the  top  of 
the  capillary  tubes  or  pores.  It  will  not  run  off  from  the 
surface,  for  capillarity  is  the  adhesive  attraction  between 
the  water  and  the  solid  matter  (earth)  that  forms- the  sides  of 
the  capillary  pores  or  spaces,  and  hence  the  water  can  not 
rise  by  this  force  higher  than  the  top  of  the  capillaries  that 
exert  the  force  ;  that  is,  it  can  not  rise  above  the  surface  of 
the  ground.  Further,  the  same  force  that  lifts  it  to  the  sur- 
face holds  it  there  unless  some  other  force  takes  it  away. 
Two  other  forces  can  remove  it— frost  and  warm  air  ;  and 
the  capillaries  will,  so  to  speak,  pump  it  to  the  surface  as 
fast  as  either  of  these  can  take  it.  Frost  takes  it  up  as  fol- 
lows :  It  first  freezes  a  thin  layer  of  this  capillary  water  at 
the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  keeps  on  freezing  thin  layers, 
each  under  the  bottom  of  the  preceding,  each  lifting  up  all 
previous  ones  by  its  own  thickness  ;  and  so,  by  morning  of  a 
clear  cold  night,  the  surface  of  a  damp  field  will  be  honey- 
combed an  inch  or  two  deep  with  this  stool-ice  or  hoar  frost. 


TILE  DEAINAGE.  29 

It  is  a  continuous  process  or  growth  from  the  bottom  all 
night  long  of  loose  porous  ice.  Incidentally  it  is  well  to  say 
that,  as  this  hoar-frost  lifts  with  it  considerable  amounts  of 
surface  earth,  therefore  if  clover  seed  be  sown  before  it  is 
formed,  then,  when  the  frost  thaws,  the  seed  will  usually  be 
nicely  covered. 

The  power  of  this  stool-ice  or  hoar-frost  is  very  great.  If 
it  freezes  around  and  partly  under  clover  and  wheat  plants* 
and  roots,  it  will  lift  them  perhaps  half  an  inch  each  clear 
frosty  night.  The  sunshine  of  the  next  day  thaws  the  frost 
and  leaves  the  roots  lifted  just  so  much ;  and  the  next  frost 
will  lift  them  more,  and  so  on  until  they  are  out  of  ground, 
or  so  nearly  so  as  to  have  little  vitality  for  growth.  I  have 
seen  many  fields  of  wheat  on  damp  undrained  soil  ruined  in 
this  way ;  and  many  fields  of  clover,  with  the  great  tap  roots 
sticking  up  into  the  air  five  or  six  inches  all  over  the  fields 
in  spring,  like  long  numb  fingers  lifted  toward  heaven,  and 
crying  for  tile  drainage  !  for  tile  drainage  almost  wholly  pre- 
vents this  by  lowering  the  level  of  saturation,  or  hydrostatic 
water,  so  much  that  only  the  smallest  capillaries  can  pump 
it  to  the  surface.  Or,  aided  by  the  warmth  of  the  sun  and 
the  action  of  the  wind,  it  may  even  dry  out  a  layer  of  earth 
at  the  surface  of  the  ground,  so  that  this  may  act  as  a  dry 
mulch,  or  blanket,  a  non-conductor  or  poor  conductor  of 
heat  and  cold  between,  the  frost  and  the  top  ends  of  even  the 
smallest  capillary  pores,  and  thus  nearly  or  quite  thwart  the 
power  of  the  cold  atmosphere  to  form  this  stool-ice. 

These  principles  and  facts  throw  light  upon  a  curious  and 
hotly  contested  question  in  tillage ;  viz.,  Shall  we  retain 
moisture  by  cultivating  the  surface  among  "hoed  crops" 
immediately  after  showers  in  summer?  "  Yes,"  say  the 
careful,  practical  observers,  "we  know  by  frequent  trials 
that  this  really  does  help  to  retain  moisture  in  the  soil." 

"  No,"  say  those  who  have  a  mere  smattering  of  science ; 
"  we  stir  hay  with  a  tedder  to  make  it  dry  faster ;  and  if  we 
stir  the  soil  with  a  cultivator  it  will  just  make  it  dry  faster." 


24  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

So  it  will  for  a  time  and  at  the  top,  until  it  dries  the  top  half 
an  Inch  or  so  and  makes  it  a  dry  mulch  between  the  hot  air 
and  wind  and  the  top  ends  of  the  capillaries.  For  heat  and 
wind,  as  we  have  already  seen  are  the  other  agents  besides 
f lost  that  can  take  the  moisture  as  fast  as  the  capillary  pores 
can  lift  it  to  the  surface.  But  the  heat  and  wind  must  be 
able  to  come  in  contact  with  the  upper  ends  of  the  capillaries 
in  order  to  take  their  moisture ;  and  this  the  dry-earth 
mulch  almost  wholly  prevents ;  for  dry  earth  is  a  very  poor 
conductor,  both  of  warmth  and  air  and  of  capillary  water. 
The  fine  tillage  of  the  surface  destroys  the  fine  small  capilla 
ry  pores  at  their  top  ends,  and  substitutes  coai  ser  but  still 
very  small  air  spaces  in  the  drying  earth,  which  will  not 
readily  conduct  the  water  from  the  capillaries  to  the  top  of 
the  ground,  nor  admit  currents  of  warm  air  to  reach  the  top 
ends  of  the  capillaries.  For,  to  be  more  exact,  it  is  not  the 
heat  or  the  wind  that  takes  up  the  moisture  pumped  to  the 
surface  by  the  capillaries,  but  the  air  (or  atmosphere)  itself. 
This  has  the  physical  property  or  power  of  absorbing  and 
holding  water  in  large  quantities  in  the  form  of  vapor  ;  and 
the  warmer  the  air  is,  the  more  wrater  (vapor)  it  will  hold. 
Heat  turns  the  water  into  vapor,  and  increases  the  power  of 
the  air  to  absorb  it.  Wind  aids  in  absorbing  the  vapor  from 
the  ground,  for  wind  is  simply  moving  air ;  and  when  the 
wind  blows,  new  portions  of  air  pass  along  and  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  damp  surface  of  the  ground  and  take  up  or 
absorb  what  vapor  they  can  hold ;  and  then  they  move  along 
and  give  other  drier  portions  a  chance  to  load  up  with  water 
—like  the  line  of  empty  buckets  at  a  fire,  filling  up  at  the 
well  or  tank  or  hydrant,  and  passing  on  to  give  place  to 
other  empty  ones.  That  is  the  reason  why  a  windy  day  is 
usually  a  drying  one.  And  so  while  deep  coarse  tillage  helps 
to  dry  out  the  soil,  fine  surface  tillage  after  showers  does 
really  help  retain  moisture.  The  capillaries  cease  to  pump 
it  up,  because  the  wind  and  heat  are  Ifcept  by  this  mulch 
from  drinking  it  up  ;  just  as  the  capillaries  of  a  lamp- wick 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  25 

cease  to  pump  when  the  flame  goes  out  and  ceases  to  take 
and  use  what  they  pump.  Observation  attests  the  fact  that 
fine  surface-tillage  after  showers  helps  to  retain  moisture, 
and  a  full  knowledge  of  the  physical  principles  involved  ex- 
plains the  reason.  The  sciolists,  with  their  smattering  of 
science,  are  wrong  as  usual. 

A  little  knowledge  is  a  dangerous  thing; 
Drink  deep,  or  taste  not  the  Pierian  spring. 

I  have  tried  to  explain  this  point  quite  fully,  partly  on  ac- 
count of  its  bearing  on  the  next  two  propositions. 

Tenth.— Tile  drainage  on  clayey  soils  helps  the  crops  to  resist 
drouth  better.  It  puts  these  soils  in  condition  to  receive  this 
surface  tillage  sooner  after  showers,  for  one  thing,  and  hence 
to  retain  moisture  better.  Again,  it  permits  the  crops  to  be 
started  earlier  and  pushed  faster,  and  hence  makes  them 
more  likely  to  be  out  of  the  way  of  the  July  and  August 
drouths  so  common  in  this  latitude.  Still  further,  it  puts 
the  whole  soil  more  fully  into  that  loose  and  spongy  condi- 
tion that  enables  it  actually  to  hold  more  water  and  yet  not  be 
too  wet.  A  clayey  soil  not  tile-drained  tends  constantly  to 
settle  down  and  become  too  compact,  especially  if  worked  or 
tramped  when  it  is  too  damp ;  and  it  almost  always  is  too 
damp  in  fall,  winter,  and  spring.  This  reduces  the  size  and 
number  of  its  capillaries,  and  hence  they  can  not  hold  so 
much ;  just  as  a  sponge  with  all  its  capillaries  full  loses  half 
its  water  if  compressed  to  half  its  size.  And  this  loose, 
spongy,  friable  condition  of  the  soil,  that  fits  it  to  hold  the 
most  water  in  its  capillaries,  is  greatly  increased  by  tile 
drainage  followed  by  proper  tillage.  When  a  clayey  soil,  not 
tiled,  is  thoroughly  soaked  it  becomes  more  or  less  puddled 
and  compacted,  so  that  the  proper  air-spaces  become  smaller 
and  act  as  capillaries.  It  dries  only  by  evaporation  from  the 
top,  as  fast  as  the  capillaries  bring  the  moisture  up.  But 
when  it  finally  does  get  dry  it  is  apt  to  bake  into  great  dry 
clods  with  little  moisture,  and  little  chance  for  roots  to  pen- 
etrate and  permeate  it ;  arid  so  a  soil  that  has  been  ren- 


26  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

dered  light,  porous,  and  spongy.,  by  tiling  and  proper  tillage, 
really  has  more  water  in  it  all  summer  that  is  available  for 
plant-growth ;  that  is,  more  in  its  proper  capillaries  to  start 
with,  and  with  its  air-spaces  open.  It  also  wastes  less  of  its 
moisture  by  evaporation,  for  reasons  already  given,  and  has 
its  pores  open  for  the  quick  reception  of  any  sudden  showers, 
thus  preventing  surface  loss  from  the  suddenness  and  rapid- 
ity of  the  rainfall. 

Eleventh.— Tile  drainage  often,  though  not  always,  dimin- 
ishes the  suddenness  and  violence  of  floods.  On  this  point  I 
have  carefully  watched  the  behavior  of  my  own  tile-drained 
land  and  of  adjacent  land  not  drained,  and  hence  have  facts 
as  well  as  theory  to  offer.  I  have  often  noticed  this  before, 
but  more  carefully  than  ever  this  last  winter  of  1890-91. 
The  drained  land  had  its  air-spaces  open  all  last  winter,  and 
the  ground  thawed  out  almost  at  the  beginning  of  each 
thaw,  and  especially  of  each  rain.  The  rain,  descending 
through  these  air-spaces,  not  only  thawed  the  entire  ground 
sooner  than  if  they  had  been  frozen  full  of  hydrostatic  water, 
but  at  once,  often  within  an  hour,  set  all  the  tile  drains  at 
work.  Tne  rain  as  it  fell  was  received  into  30  inches  deep  of 
porous,  spongy  soil,  and  gradually  under  hydrostatic  pressure 
(acting  slowly  through  the  pores)  was  sent  into  the  tiles. 
Sometimes  the  drains  would  keep  right  on  discharging  more 
and  more  slowly  for  several  days,  and  sometimes  clear  on 
until  the  next  rain,  thus  emptying  the  soil  of  its  surplus,  and 
leaving  again  this  30  inches  of  porous  soil  and  subsoil  like  a 
great  sponge  all  over  the  tiles,  ready  to  absorb  each  rain  and 
make  its  flow  into  the  open  streams  below  far  slower,  and  ex- 
tended over  a  much  longer  time.  But  the  ground  adjacent, 
and  not  tiled,  being  soaked  full  and  frozen  in  December  and 
January,  remained  frozen  full  nearly  all  winter,  especially 
where  bare  or  nearly  so.  All  its  depressions  were  puddles  of 
water  frozen  into  solid  ice,  and  the  whole  surface  was  thus 
without  the  power  of  absorbing  or  filtering  scarcely  a  gallon  of 
each  new  rain.  Thus  the  untiled  clayey  land  is  like  a  great 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  27 

flat  tin  root'  from  which  all  the  water  must  run  as  fast  as  it 
falls.  But  the  tiled  land,  especially  if  covered  with  a  mat  of 
clover  or  whe-it,  is  like  a  flat  roof  covered  with  a  deep  layer 
of  tine  sponge,  which  will  absorb  quite  a  shower  before  it 
will  let  any  run  off,  and  will  retain  much  water,  slowly 
parting  with  it  for  hours  after  the  rain  ceases. 

In  early  autumn,  however,  when  all  the  surface  depres- 
sions are  empty  on  even  untiled  clayey  land,  after  a  long 
dry  summer,  we  can  see  that  the  untiled  land  would  store 
more  water  than  the  tiled  before  parting  with  it.  But  that 
is  the  time  when  disastrous  floods  do  not  occur,  at  any  rate. 
Tile  drainage,  therefore,  after  the  soil  is  saturated  in  fall 
will,  as  a  rule,  diminish  the  suddenness  and  violence  of 
floods  below,  just  in  proportion  to  the  area  tile-drained. 
That  is,  tile  drainage  will  (and  does)  furnish  a  sort  of  res- 
ervoir or  storage-layer  of  porous  soil  for  holding  heavy  rains 
back  for  a  time  from  the  water-courses  below,  thus  extend- 
ing the  time  and  therefore  diminishing  the  violence  of  the 
delivery  below.  Such  has  been  my  careful  observation  of 
actual  facts  on  and  below  my  own  land,  and  such  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  rational  scientific  explanation.  And  yet  I 
know  it  is  a  popular  belief  that  tile  drainage  increases  floods. 
Open  ditches  and  the  clearing  of  forests  do ;  but  tile  drain- 
age, I  think,  does  not  as  a  rule. 

Twelfth. — Drainage,  both  open  and  with  tiles,  improves  the 
health  of  a  mji.on.  For  best  results,  large  regions  must  be 
drained  ;  but  even  on  a  single  farm  it  diminishes  malarial, 
diphtheritic,  and  typhoid  tendencies  to  drain  a  considerable 
area  around  the  house  and  barns  by  a  thorough  system  of 
tile  drainage.  The  farmer  may  not  be  able  to  control  or 
greatly  influence  the  general  drainage  of  the  township  or 
county  in  which  he  lives ;  but  he  can  control  that  of  the 
farm  on  which  and  the  cellar  over  which  he  and  his  family 
live.  In'  the  tenacious  and  almost  impervious  clayey  soils 
that  are  found  over  so  large  a  portion  of  Northern  Ohio,  I 
believe  the  cellar  should  have  a  good  four-inch  tile  drain 


28  TILE  DKAINAGE. 

laid  a  foot  deep,  just  inside  the  wall  all  around  the  cellar, 
covered  with  coarse  gravel,  and  running  under  the  cellar 
wall  at  one  corner  to  a  good  outlet,  and  with  a  good  fall. 
Then  a  gravel  or  cement  floor  will  give  a  sufficiently  dry 
cellar.  A  wet  cellar  under  the  living-rooms  is  a  dangerous 
thing  to  health,  especially  if  rubbish  or  vegetables  ever  de- 
cay there.  The  cellar  should  be  thus  drained  first,  and  then 
as  much  of  the  adjacent  yard,  garden,  and  farm  as  one's 
means  will  permit.  The  pay  will  come  in  better  health  and 
better  crops,  and  the  drainage  will  in  time  extend  to  other 
farms  and  to  the  township  and  county  if  they  need  drainage. 
Drainage,  like  charity,  "  begins  at  home."  The  streets  of  a 
certain  city  are  said  to  be  marvelously  clean  because  "  every 
man  actually  sweeps  before  his  own  door." 


CHAPTER   III. 

Why    do    we    Tile-drain    Land?      The    Actual 
Facts;  Does  Drainage  Pay? 

The  preceding  chapter  has  given  theory  chiefly,  supported 
by  a  few  facts.  According  to  the  theory  there  given,  tile 
drainage  ought  to  bring  good  results  and  pay  its  way  on  soils 
that  need  it,  provided  the  drainage  is  done  economically  and 
the  land  is  properly  managed  after  tiling.  What  are  the 
actual  facts  V  Has  it  actually  paid  where  it  has  been  tried  V 
I  believe  that  it  has  and  does,  arid  will  in  future.  As  one 
object  of  this  little  book,  on  the  part  both  of  its  author  and 
its  publisher,  is  to  encourage  and  promote  more  successful 
farming,  and  as  we  believe  tile  drainage  is  the  very  basis  of 
successful  farming  on  clayey  or  low,  swampy  soils,  we  shall 
take  considerable  pains  in  this  chapter,  both  by  photograph- 
ic illustrations  and  by  clear  statement  of  facts,  to  make  it 
plain  that  tile  drainage  actually  does  pay,  on  soils  that  need  it. 


TILE  DKAINAGE.  29 

I  might  give  facts  from  many  farms  in  many  States — facts 
of  my  own  observation,  and  figures  given  me  by  the  owners. 
13ut  it  may  be  better  to  confine  myself  to  my  own  farm  and 
my  own  experience,  and  give  that  the  more  fully,  both  in 
word  and  picture. 

MY   FIRST   EXPERIMENT   IN   THOROUGH   TILING. 

My  first  cobble  stone  drain  I  laid  for  my  father  about  40 
years  ago,  first  in  our  farm-garden,  and  afterward  in  our 
large  garden  in  Hudson  village,  where  we  lived  a  few  years, 
in  order  that  "we  boys"  might  go  through  college.  Even 
those  single  cobble  drains  through  our  gardens,  with  a  good 
slope,  showed  such  excellent  results  in  mellowing  and  dry- 
ing the  soil  in  early  spring,  and  making  tillage  easier  and 
crops  better,  that  it  predisposed  me  toward  underdrainage. 

Soon  after  I  bought  my  father's  farm,  now  nearly  27  years 
ago,  I  collected  cobble  stones  for  an  underdrain  through  a 
wet  swale  or  depression  in  one  corner  of  what  is  now  my 
orchard.  I  hired  an  expert  English  ditcher,  Mr  John  Win- 
burn,  to  help  me  dig  and  lay  the  drain.  Said  he,  "  Within 
ten  years  you  will  tile-drain  this  whole  field,  and  will  need  a 
four-inch  tile-mam  right  down  this  valley,  and  I  would  lay  it 
now."  I  followed  his  advice.  That  swale,  from  being  the 
wettest,  became  the  driest  and  most  friable  part  of  the  field, 
soonest  fit  to  plow  in  spring,  mellowest  all  summer.  A 
few  years  after  this  I  lost  two  crops  in  succession  on  that 
field  from  excessive  wetness — one  of  potatoes  and  one  of 
Hungarian  grass,  both  nearly  total  failures.  I  at  once 
thoroughly  tiled  about  13  acres  of  the  15  (then  in  orchard) 
with  laterals  33  feet  apart  and  30  inches  deep,  and  with  other 
four-inch  mains  as  needed,  in  addition  to  the  one  laid  before. 
The  next  year  I  harvested  46i  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre 
from  10  acres  of  that  field,  where,  bear  in  mind,  I  had  just 
had  two  yeai  s  of  failure.  The  measurements  were  certified. 
Wheat  was  $1.00  per  bushel.  The  thorough  drainage  cost 
me  $23  per  acre.  The  first  crop  of  wheat ^  therefore,  paid 


30  TILE  DBAINAG& 

twice  the  total  cost  of  drainage,  besides  the  increased  growth  of 
the  apple-trees,  and  a  heavy  crop  of  wheat  straw,  and  as 
grand  a  crop  of  clover  and  timothy  the  next  year  as  I  ever 
saw. 

Encouraged  by  these  results,  and  by  others  later,  I  went 
on  from  year  to  year  increasing  the  area  of  thoroughly  tiled 
land,  until  now  I  have,  as  already  stated,  nearly  65  acres  of 
my  total  115,  drained  with  about  15  miles  of  laterals  and  the 
necessary  mains. 

My  very  able  friend,  Mr.  B.  F.  Johnson,  of  Champaign  Co., 
Illinois,  has  had  much  to  say  for  the  past  ten  years  in  the 
various  agricultural  papers  for  which  he  has  written,  of  the 
evil  effects  of  tile  drainage  in  Illinois,  especially  upon  or- 
chards, and  in  increasing  the  liability  to  drouth  and  flood. 
On  these  last  points,  drouth  and  flood,  I  have  already  spoken 
quite  fully  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  numbers  of  the  preced- 
ing chapter.  As  to  general  crops  and  orchards,  I  have  trav- 
eled, observed,  and  inquired  quite  extensively  in  nearly  all 
the  States  of  the  Union,  and  have  never  seen  or  heard  of  ill 
effects  of  drainage  except  from  Mr.  Johnson,  and  he  never 
offered  any  ocular  or  other  demonstration.  It  may  be  and 
doubtless  is  true,  as  he  states,  that  drouth  has  increased  in 
Illinois  during  the  past  three  or  four  years,  and  yet  the  fact 
be  due  to  other  causes  than  tile  drainage.  Drouth  has  also 
increased  during  the  same  period  in  Central  and  Western 
Iowa,  where  I  lived  the  past  five  years  nearly ;  but  it  can 
not  have  been  caused  by  tile  drainage,  for  probably  not  one 
per  cent  of  the  total  area  there  has  been  tiled.  Then,  too;  as  to 
its  increasing  floods,  the  Ohio  Kiver  floods  are  oftenest  quot- 
ed. In  the  first  place,  the  floods  have  not  increased,  as  the 
statistics  of  50  years  show;  and  in  the  second  place,  not  one- 
tenth  of  one  per  cent  of  the  hilly  water-shed  that  causes  floods 
in  the  Ohio  River  has  ever  heard  of  tile  drainage.  It  is  simply 
the  old  fault  in  logic,  of  assigning  wrong  causes.  The  logi- 
cians call  it  the  fallacy  of  "postea,  ergo  propter,"  or  "  after- 
ward, therefore  because  of."  It  rains  after  the  barometer 


TILE  DEAIKAGE. 


31 


falls  and  the  peacock  screams ;  therefore  the  barometer  and 
the  peacock  caused  the  rain  ! 

EFFECTS  OF  TILE  DRAINAGE  UPON  ORCHARD  AND  WHEAT. 

These  are  best  shown  from  a  part  of  this  same  field  of 
mine.  As  already  stated,  not  very  long  after  the  orchard 
was  planted,  about  13  acres  of  the  total  15  were  thoroughly 
tiled  and  the  other  two  not.  Fig.  8,  below,  is  a  diagram 


PiAGJUM         ^     PART   »f 

EXPLANATIONS:  =-=^-==   BOUNDARY  LINES, 

~  MAIM    TILE    DRAINS;    

S/CAMERA  .       DIRECTION   °F    EXPOSURE 
(•ORIGINAL  TREt,  21'  '"YKS    OLDk   o.   DEAD  T 


ORCHARD.  r6 

LATERAL  TILE  I 

SHOWS   DIRECTION  »F   SLOPE,  OR   FALL, 


,  RE-SFT   WITHIN   16  YEARS. 

showing  the  exact  drainage  system  of  about  6|  acres  of  the 
orchard,  including  the  two  acres,  or  a  little  more,  not  thor- 
oughly tiled.  The  whole  plat  includes  the  lowest  and  most 
rolling  or  sloping  part  of  the  orchard,  and  the  part  not  tiled  is 
the  most  rolling,  even  of  this  part,  and  therefore  was  left,  be- 


32  TILE  DKAINAGE. 

cause  I  thought  it  might  not  need  drainage,  or  at  least  could 
be  left  until  I  could  learn  whether  so  large  an  outlay  paid  on 
the  rest  of  the  orchard.  At  the  right  of  Fig.  8,  A  B  C,  with 
the  short  spur  F  B,  is  the  one  main  drain,  and  D  E  is  the 
only  lateral  in  the  part  not  thoroughly  tiled.  At  the  left  of 
the  figure  it  is  seen  that  about  two-thirds  of  the  plat  is  thor- 
oughly tiled,  having  laterals  half  way  between  all  rows.  The 
rows,  and  hence  the  laterals,  are  33  feet  apart.  The  part 
thoroughly  tiled  is  marked  "  plat  1,"  and  the  part  only  par- 
tially tiled  is  marked  "  plat  2,"  and  will  be  so  referred  to. 
The  mark  +  shows  an  original  tree,  alive  and  thrifty.  The 
mark  O  shows  one  dead,  and  replaced  by  a  new  tree.  The 
photo-engravings,  Figs.  9  and  10,  show  at  a  glance  the  re- 
sults of  drainage  upon  orchard  trees  and  wheat,  and  show 
it,  as  I  think,  in  a  most  striking  and  conclusive  manner.* 
Fig.  9  is  a  photo-engraving  of  a  part  of  plat  1,  and  Fig.  10  of  a 
part  of  plat  2.  The  camera  stood  at  S,  Fig.  9,  and  pointed 
diagonally  to  the  left  for  Fig.  9,  and  to  the  right  for  Fig.  10, 
as  shown  by  the  darts  at  S,  Fig.  8. 

THE  EFFECTS  OF  TILING  UPON  APPLE-TREES. 

Compare  Figs.  9  and  10.  "  Seeing  is  believing,"  and  the  cam- 
era will  not  lie.  In  Fig.  9  the  trees  are  strong  and  thrifty  ; 
their  branches  meet  each  other  ;  they  shade  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  ground;  some  of  the  trunks  are  over  40  inches  in  cir- 
cumference a  foot  above  the  ground ;  and  the  trees  are  seen, 
both  from  the  photograph,  Fig.  9,  and  the  diagram,  Fig.  8,  to 
be  nearly  all  of  the  original  planting.  But  in  Fig.  10  the  trees 
are  evidently  far  smaller ;  there  is  none  of  the  uniformity, 
density,  and  thrift  found  in  Fig.  9  ;  and  Fig.  8  shows  that 
more  than  half  of  the  original  trees  died;  and  they  have  had 
to  be  replaced  by  smaller  trees  within  about  16  years. 

*With  the  full  consent  of  the  publisher,  A.  I.  Root,  I  g-ave  in  The 
Rural  New-Yorker  of  Aug.  8,  1891,  Fig's.  8,  9,  and  10  (finely  reproduced  by 
that  paper),  and  the  substance  of  some  six  or  eight  pages  which  follow 
here.  W.  I.  C. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  38 

ARE  THE  ENGRAVINGS  FAIR   AND  TRUTHFUL  V 

Yes,  wholly  so ;  or,  if  any  thing,  they  do  not  give  the  facts 
strongly  enough  in  favor  of  drainage  ;  for,  really,  the  trees 
and  wheat  in  Fig.  10  (the  same  as  plat  2  of  Fig.  8)  have  had 
the  best  chance.  Naturally  the  land  in  Fig.  10  is  better  than 
tint  in  Fig.  9,  both  for  orchard  and  wheat,  being  more  roll- 
ing ;  and,  still  further,  it  lies  nearer  to  the  street  and  to  the 
barn  (see  Fig.  8),  and,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  has  had 
more  manure  for  the  past  forty  years.  Even  since  I  have 
owned  the  place,  nearly  twenty-seven  years,  it  has  had  most 
manure,  both  because  one  naturally  likes  to  have  the  crops- 
near  the  public  road  look  well,  and  because  it  is  handier  to 
draw  the  manure  there  if  there  is  not  enough  for  the  whole. 
Aside  from  this,  which  favors  the  part  not  tiled,  the  repre- 
sentation is  absolutely  fair  and  truthful. 

The  point  of  view  was  fairly  chosen  on  the  line  between 
the  drained  and  undrained  part,  and  in  far  enough  from  the 
southwest  edge  to  give  the  middle  part  of  both  plats,  unaf- 
fected by  outside  influences,  such  as  prevailing  winds, 
storms,  etc.  It  is  true,  that  some  varieties  of  trees  are 
thriftier  growers,  such  as  Baldwins,  Astrachans,  etc.,  but 
the  rows  of  varieties  run  ((cross  both  plats  (Fig.  8);  that  is, 
the  rows  are  perpendicular  to  the  street,  not  parallel.  The 
same  has  been  true  of  the  tillage,  drilling-in  of  the  wheat, 
application  of  superphosphates,  etc.  All  have  been  perpen- 
dicular to  the  street,  and  across  both  plats.  The  same  kinds 
of  trees  (original  planting)  are  in  the  same  relative  position 
in  Figs.  9  and  10.  Mice,  rabbits,  and  careless  tillage,  were 
alike  in  both  plats.  In  short,  every  thing  is  absolutely  fair; 
or,  if  unfair  at  all,  it  is  unfair  to  the  tiled  part,  shown  in 
Fig.  9. 

What  ailed  the  trees  in  Fig.  10?  Most  of  those  that  died, 
died  of  wet  feet.  In  spite  of  the  excellent  slope,  which  aver- 
ages a  fall  of  fully  three  feet  to  the  hundred,  the  tenacious 
and  compact  clayey  soil  has  been  much  of  the  seasoir  super- 
saturated—full of  "  hydrostatic  water."  But  tree-roots  (ex- 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  35 

cept  of  water-growing  or  swamp-crowing  trees,  willows, 
wliite  elms,  etc.)  must  iiave  nir  as  well  as  moisture,  as  was 
fully  explained  in  Chapter  II.  When  the  proper  air-spaces  in 
the  soil  are  soaked  full  of  water,  the  roots  suffocate,  so  to 
speak, or  drown,  like  land  animals  held  too  long  under  water. 
And  as  such  animals  struggle  and  swim  to  the  surface  to  get 
air,  so  do  the  roots  run  close  to  or  even  half  upon  the  sur- 
face, to  </<'/  0-ir.  Notice  the  roots,  especially  of  sugar  maples 
and  apple-trees,  if  you  have  a  chance.  In  my  own  "  sugar- 
cam]  v1  part  of  the  maples  grow  along  a  brook-valley  on  soil 
rather  gravelly  and  naturally  drained.  These  trees  strike 
their  roots  down  deep,  and  are  very  thrifty  and  strong.  But 
a  part,  of  the  trees  are  on  wet,  cold,  level,  upland-clay  soil. 
Here  the  roots  run  for  rods  near  and  even  on  the  surface.  I 
used  to  think  it  was  because  the  soil  was  so  thin,  and  the 
subsoil  so  hard  and  impervious;  but  upon  further  study  I 
am  convinced  that  it  is  because  it  is  too  wet.  The  roots  are 
••  swimming  on  the  surface  v  to  get  a  chance  to  breathe  ! 

The  same  is  true  in  this  apple-orchard.  In  plat  2  of  Fig.  8 
(compare  Fig.  10).  the  roots  grow  so  close  to  the  surface,  that, 
even  while  the  trees  were  comparatively  small,  a  few  years 
of  cultivation  cut  and  broke  many  of  their  roots,  and  the 
trees  died,  partly  from  that  cause  and  partly  from  overwet- 
ness  in  wet  times,  and  the  hard  lumpy  condition  of  the  soil 
in  dry  times. 

But  in  plat  1  (compare  Fig.  9)  the  roots  struck  down  deep 
into  a  soil  aerated  and  rendered  more  mellow  by  tile  drain- 
age, and  found'sufticient  moisture  the  whole  year  round,  but 
never  excessive,  and  were  helped  and  not  damaged  by  the 
tillage  of  hoed  crops  growing  among  them. 

EXACT   STATISTICS  OF  MORTALITY. 

Fig.  8  gives  the  means  of  ascertaining  these.  As  stated, 
the  mark  +  shows  just  where  each  original  tree  (or  tree  re- 
placed before  the  land  was  tiled)  remains  alive  and  thrifty, 
and  the  mark  O  shows  each  place  where  one  has  died  and 


be 

K 


O. 

£ 

6 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  37 

been  replaced  since  the  land  was  tiled  ;  /.  e.,  within  16  years. 
It  is  an  exact  "graphical  diagram,"  and  will  repay  careful 
study.  Even  a  glance  shows  very  many  more  zeros  (O)  in 
plat  2  (Fig.  8)  than  in  plat  1.  Now  count  in  both,  if  you 
please,  and  yon  will  find  that,  in  plat  2,  49  out  of  a  total  91 
have  died,  or  almost  exactly  54  per  cent.  But  in  plat  1  only 
25  out  of  a  total  175  have  died,  or  a  little  over  14  per  cent. 
That  is,  nearly  four  times  as  many  in  proportion  have  died  in 
the  part  only  partially  tiled  as  in  the  part  thoroughly  tiled. 
But  all  other  causes,  except  drainage,  have  been  alike  in 
both,  or  even  more  favorable  to  the  part  not  tiled.  We  seem 
to  be  simply  and  irresistibly  shut  down  to  the  conclusion  that 
thorough  tile  drainage  on  this  clayey  soil  has  made  four  times 
as  many  trees  live,  while  a  comparison  of  Figs.  9  and  10  shows 
that  those  on  the  tile-drained  soil  are  far  larger  and  more 
thrifty.  I  may  add,  that,  even  where  original  trees  are  still 
living,  they  are  not  nearly  so  thrifty  or  productive,  nor  is 
their  fruit  nearly  so  nice.  For  example,  I  have  now,  Aug. 
10.  nearly  finished  picking  and  marketing  the  Red  Astra- 
chans  on  a  row  which  (like  all  the  other  varieties)  runs  across 
both  plats.  The  total  yield  per  tree  is  fully  50  per  cent  great- 
er on  the  tiled  part ;  and  in  size,  beauty,  and  evenness  of 
shape,  there  is  more  than  that  amount  in  favor  of  the  tiled. 

A  still  closer,  examination  will  show  that,  even  in  plat  2, 
fewer  trees  died  where  there  was  best  drainage.  For  exam- 
ple, in  the  two  rows  nearest  the  street,  only  10  out  of  28  died, 
or  less  than  36  per  cent ;  while  in  the  rest  of  plat  2,  40  out  of 
63  died,  or  over  63  per  cent.  But  virtually  these  two  rows 
are  one-half  drained ;  the  second  from  the  street,  by  the 
cellar-drain,  which  lies  down  the  slope,  and  hence  drains  it 
well,  and  ttie  first  from  the  street  by  the  deep  street-ditch, 
which  is  only  30  feet  from  this  row,  and  averages  four 
feet  deep  from  the  level  of  the  trees,  and  which  runs  to  with- 
in three  or  four  trees  from  the  east  corner  of  the  plat.  The 
cellar-drain  affects  the  row  northwest  of  itself  very  little  in- 
deed, because  it  is  uphill  from  the  row  toward  the  drain,  and 


38  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

a  tile  drain  can  not  "efcrato"  much  uphill.  The  area  of  very 
decidedly  greatest  mortality  lies  northwest  of  the  cellar- 
drain,  between  it  and  the  main  drain  A  B  ;  that  is,  the  part 
where  there  are  no  drains  at  a??,  except  on  the  outer  edges 

Still  another  fact :  The  row  of  trees  northeast  of  the  main 
drain  H  I,  in  plat  1,  has  no  lateral  drain  outside  of  itself  ,  north- 
east ;  that  is,  it  has  only  half"  the  benefits  of  drainage,  and 
that,  too,  with  the  main  drain  H  I  uphill  from  it.  Well,  in 
this  row  5  out  of  12  trees  have  died,  or  over  41  per  cent,  while 
in  the  rest  of  plat  1  (all  thoroughly  tiled,  with  drains  on  both 
sides  of  each  row),  only  21  out  of  163  trees  died,  or  less  than 
13  per  cent. 

Let  me  here  restate  these  striking  facts  in  more  concise 
form. 

PER    CENT  OF  ORIGINAL     TREES     THAT  HAVE      DIED     AND 
BEEN   REPLACED  WITHIN  16   YEARS. 

Where  tiled  both  sides  of  each  row,  13  per  cent. 

Where  half  tiled,  that  is,  on  one  side  of 

each  row,       -       -       -       -       -       36  to  41  per  cent. 
Where  not  tiled  at  all  to  speak  of,  -      63  per  cent. 

It  is  fair  to  add  once  more,  that  the  present  thrift  and 
bearing  capacity  of  the  trees  are  about  in  the  same  ratio. 

EFFECTS  OF  TILE  DRAINAGE  UPON  WHEAT. 

As  to  this  point,  the  companion  pictures,  Figs.  9  and  10, 
tell  the  story.  In  Fig.  9  (tiled)  the  wheat  is  nearly  all  headed 
(June  5th  of  a  very  late  season,  1891) ;  is  about  four  feet 
high,  or  up  to  the  waist  of  a  six-foot  man,  and  is  thick  and 
thrifty.  In  Fig.  10  the  wheat  is  a  full  week  later,  is  just  be- 
ginning to  head ;  is  about  two  feet  high,  and  so  thin  you  can 
see  the  knees  and  almost  the  feet  of  the  man  who  stands  in 
it.  The  wheat  in  Fig.  9  at  harvest  had  33  shocks  per  acre  ; 
and  that  in  Fig.  10,  22  shocks  per  acre.  I  gave  explicit  orders 
to  have  the  two  plats  separated  in  stacking  and  threshing  ; 
but  by  a  misunderstanding  of  the  men  it  was  not  done, 
greatly  to  my  disappointment.  The  difference,  I  know, 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  39 

would  have  been  still  greater ;  this,  too,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  shade  in  Fig.  9  is  far  the  most  dense  and  most  inju- 
rious to  the  wheat  yield.  In  other  fields,  after  more  unfavor- 
able winters  I  have  sometimes  seen  tile  drainage  more  than 
double  the  wheat  yield,  and  sometimes  even  make  the  entire 
difference  between  a  failure  and  a  good  crop. 

Now,  the  striking  facts  given  above  are  not  of  my  imagina- 
tion, nor  of  my  creation,  except  as  I  caused  them,  or,  rather, 
occasioned  them,  by  tiling  one  plat  and  not  the  other.  In- 
deed, I  had  not  noticed  the  effects  so  fully  before  this  sum- 
mer ;  for,  not  very  long  after  I  tiled  the  orchard  as  described, 
I  left  the  farm  for  about  eleven  years,  with  only  an  occasion- 
al visit.  I  had  even  almost  forgotten  that  the  land  in  plat  2 
(.Fig.  8)  was  not  fully  tiled,  though  I  saw  in  general  that  the 
trees  and  crops  were  not  so  good  there.  But  when  I  return- 
ed to  my  farm  this  spring,  residing  on  the  farm  now  and 
managing  and  working  it  myself,  these  facts  thrust  them- 
selves upon  my  attention  ;  and  the  more  carefully  I  exam- 
ined them  the  more  striking  did  they  appear,  and  the  more 
surely  were  they  seen  to  be  due  to  tile  drainage  I  presume 
that,  in  all,  over  fifty  gentlemen  from  various  parts  of  the 
State  and  of  the  United  States  have  visited  the  farm  dur- 
ing the  past  four  months.  I  have  called  the  attention  of 
all  of  them  to  these  facts,  and  all  have  agreed  that  they  are 
most  striking,  and  most  conclusively  in  favor  of  thorough 
tile  drainage,  at  least  for  orchards  and  wheat,  on  clayey 
soils,  even  where  quite  rolling.  1  had  the  photographs  tak- 
en for  Figs.  9  and  10,  and  others  that  follow,  and  now  publish 
them  in  order  that  there  may  be  an  exact,  public,  and  per- 
manent record  of  the  facts — an  ocular  demonstration  of  the 
effects  of  drainage. 

EFFECTS  OF  TILE  DRAINAGE  UPON  CLOVER. 

Some  of  my  good  friends  who  own  and  till  farms  of  sandy 
loam,  or  limestone  "  drift "  soil,  which  are  naturally  drained, 
fertile,  and  adapted  to  clover,  wheat,  fruits,  and  root  crops, 


TILE  DKAINAGE.  41 

seem  to  feel  and  write  (in  spite  of  occasional  disclaimers)  as 
if  clover  were  a  means  of  creating  fertility,  a  sufficient  ma- 
nure in  itself  to  keep  up  fertility  under  cropping,  and  even 
increase  it,  without  commercial  fertilizers  or  much  manure 
from  live  stock.  1  wish  they  could  try  my  rather  cold  and 
naturally  unresponsive  clayey  soil.  My  chief  difficulty  has 
V)een  to  get  clover  itself  to  grow  well  and  regularly.  It  is  a  reg- 
ular and  reliable  crop  with  me  only  on  land  that  has  been 
tile-drtdncd  and  considerably  fertilized,  or  else  surface-drained 
by  plowing  it  in  high,  narrow  "lands,"  with  deep  dead-fur- 
rows, and  v.-'i-y  heavily  manured  at  some  previous  time,  or 
directly  for  the  crop  with  which  the  clover  is  sown.  No  crop 
in  my  whole  list  responds  so  promptly  both  to  tile  drainage 
and  to  fertilizers  as  the  clover  crop. 

Figs.  11  and  12  are  companion  photoengravings  showing 
the  effects  of  drainage  upon  clover.  Fig.  11  is  tile-drained  ; 
Fig.  12  is  not.  In  all  other  respects  the  treatment  was  the 
same,  except  that  the  land  shown  in  Fig.  12  lies  nearer  the 
street  and  nearer  the  barn  ;  has  had  more  manure  in  the  past, 
and  has  a  hotter  slope,  easterly,  than  that  in  Fig.  11,  which 
is  westerly.  Both  were  in  winter  wheat  in  the  fall  of  1889, 
drilled  in  the  same  day  or  consecutive  days ;  both  were  seed- 
ed to  clover  and  timothy  alike  in  all  respects,  and  the  same 
day,  in  March,  1890,  and  both  were  mown  in  September  of 
that  fall,  and  weeds,  stubble,  clover,  and  timothy  were  left 
as  a  mulch  on  the  ground.  About  four  quarts  of  clover  and 
six  of  timothy  per  acre  were  sown  on  both  alike.  The  clover 
in  Fig.  12  came  up  pretty  well,  but  did  not  stand  the  first 
winter.  In  Fig.  12  there  is  not  enough  clover  to  prevent  the 
hay  from  being  sold  as  clear  timothy.  In  Fig.  11,  especially 
where  superphosphate  was  used,  it  was  nearly  clear  clover ; 
that  is,  the  clover  was  so  heavy  that  it  lodged,  over  much  of 
the  field,  and  virtually  smothered  the  timothy.  If  clover  is 
a  good  thing  to  help  improve  land,  and  it  unquestionably  is, 
then  we  owners  of  clayey  farms  must  tile-drain  our  land  to 
get  clover  as  a  reliable  crop,  in  order  to  improve  our  land 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  43 

thereby.  On  the  undrained  part  of  the  plat,  Fig.  12,  we  got 
very  little  clover,  even  with  the  use  of  superphosphate — not 
enough,  as  remarked  already,  to  prevent  the  timothy  from 
being  sold  as  "  clear  timothy"  in  any  city  market.  In  short, 
tlie  tile-drained  land  had  good  clover,  and  that  not  tiled  had  al- 
most none,  as  seen  in  Figs.  11  and  12.  The  photographs  were 
taken  June  5th.  Neither  the  timothy  nor  the  clover  had  be- 
gun to  head,  as  they  had  been  kept  back  greatly  by  the  late 
and  very  disastrous  May  frost. 

EFFECTS  OF  TILE  DRAINAGE  ON  THE  VALUE  OF  MANURES 
AND  FERTILIZERS. 

In  Chapter  II.,  numbers  3  and  4, 1  have  given  the  theory, 
and  the  reason  why  tile  drainage  should  increase  the  good 
effects  of  manures  and  fertilizers.  I  now  give  a  few  facts. 

In  the  fall  of  1889  I  used  $5.25  worth  of  best  superphos- 
phate per  acre,  on  about  5  acres  of  wheat,  and  none  on  an- 
other strip,  side  by  side,  of  similar  land  and  treated  alike. 
About  a  third  of  each  strip  was  not  then  tile-drained;  the  rest 
was.  The  fertilizer  increased  the  wheat  11  bushels  per  acre, 
giving  36  bushels  per  acre  against  25  on  the  untiled ;  that  is, 
it  paid  twice  its  cost  the  first  crop.  But  the  point  now  is, 
that  you  could  see  little  benefit  on  the  untiled  end  of  tJie  strip ; 
but  on  the  tiled  end  I  should  judge  the  yield  was  doubled  ; 
while  on  the  whole  it  was  increased  not  quite  50  per  cent. 
This  year  I  cut  and  raked  and  drew  the  hay  on  the  two  strips 
separately.  Five  acres  of  the  unfertilized  gave  12  large 
loads,  and  the  fertilized  five  acres  (10x80  rods)  gave  16  large 
loads,  as  nearly  the  same  size  as  the  men  could  make  them. 
But  the  gain  on  the  untiled  part  (one-third  the  whole,  and 
clear  timothy)  was  only  one  load,  while  the  gain  on  the  tiled 
part  (two-thirds  of  the  whole  and  nearly  clear  clover)  was 
three  loads  instead  of  two,  as  it  should  have  been  to  be  in  the 
same  ratio  with  the  other. 

I  could  give  other  examples,  but  this  will  suffice.  One 
great  advantage  of  tile  drainage  on  clayey  soils  is,  that  it 


Fig.  13.— Timothy  on  tiled  land.    Compare  with  Fig.  U.  and  SrV  explaua- 
ation  in  the  printed  matter  herewith. 


Fi<j.  14.—  Timothy  on  land  not  tiled. ^Compare  with  Fig.  18,  and  see  full 
explanation  in  the  printed  matter  herewith. 


46  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

makes  manures  and  fertilizers  tell  so  much  better.  It  is  most 
fortunate  for  us  owners  of  clayey  farms,  that  good  commer- 
cial fertilizers  give  such  remarkable  results  on  them  as  soon 
as  they  are  tiled. 

EFFECTS    OF  TILE    DRAINAGE     ON     THE     PERMANENCE     OF 
FERTILIZERS  AND  CROPS,   AND  UPON  WEEDS. 

The  companion  photo-engravings,  Figs.  18  and  14,  illus- 
trate this.  The  photographs  were  both  taken  June  5,  1891, 
before  the  timothy  had  begun  to  show  any  signs  of  heading. 
In  Fig.  18  the  land  is  tiled  ;  in  Fig.  14,  not.  All  other  condi- 
tions were  alike,  except,  as  in  all  the  other  cases,  that  the  un- 
tiled part  lies  nearest  the  street  and  the  barn,  and  Ms  hnd  most 
manure  in  the  past  80  years,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  and 
has  a  better  slope.  Now  examine  the  engravings.  In  Fig. 
18  the  timothy  is  very  dense  and  thrifty,  about  two  feet 
high,  and  scarcely  a  weed  or  plantain  could  be  found.  In 
Fig.  14  the  timothy  is  thin,  scarcely  covers  the  ankles,  and  is 
full  of  weeds,  especially  of  that  miserable  pest  of  thin,  wet 
soils,  the  broad-leaved  plantain,  large  numbers  of  which  are 
clearly  seen  in  the  engraving,  or,  at  least,  in  the  original 
photograph.  The  two  photographs  are  of  the  two  parts  (end 
to  end)  of  one  strip.  Both  were  sown  to  timothy  and  clover 
mixed,  in  the  growing  wheat,  six  years  ago  last  spring,  with 
superphosphate  and  fine,  pure  bone  meal,  but  no  manure. 
In  two  years  most  of  the  clover  had  a  gone  out,"  especially 
on  the  part  not  tiled,  Fig,  14.  Gradually  the  timothy  has 
thinned  out,  too,  on  the  undrained  part,  and  weeds  and 
plantain  have  come  in  in  its  place,  and  crowded  out  still 
more  of  the  timothy.  This  year  the  tiled  part  had  fully  twice 
as  much  My  per  acre,  and  it  was  as  fine  timothy  as  you  or  I 
ever  saw— 40  big  loads  (cocked  over  night,  and  compact)  on 
the  whole  ten  acres.  On  the  tiled  part  the  timothy  was  as 
heavy  as  ever  before— as  heavy  as  I  ever  saw,  and  it  seems 
almost  a  sin  to  plow  the  sod  up  for  wheat,  as  I  am  now  doing 
(Aug.  10,  1891),  simply  because  it  has  been  "down "  in  grass 


48  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

so  long,  and  because  I  have  enlarged  the  field  from  adjacent 
pasture  land,  and  want  it  all  alike,  to  start  a  regular  rotation 
by  plats. 

EFFECTS  OF  TILE  DRAINAGE  ON  BARN  ROOM. 

Seventeen  years  ago  last  spring  I  built  a  bank  barn  out  of 
four  old  ones,  39x7:4  ft.,  with  some  additions.  The  hay  runs 
to  the  basement  floor  in  24x44  ft.  of  it,  and  it  is  quite  roomy, 
holding  100  tons  of  hay  by  cubic  contents,  though  the  eaves- 
posts  are  only  14  feet  above  the  top  of  the  basement  in 
front,  and  7  feet  in  the  rear.  When  I  built  it,  both  my 
neighbors  and  myself  thought  it  was  abundant,  and  more 
too,  for  all  the  hay  and  grain  I  could  raise  on  my  little  farm 
of  126  acres,  26  of  it  so  shaded  by  orchard  and  maple  grove  as 
not  to  give  full  crops  or  pasture.  But  I  have  since  sold  11 
acres  of  my  meadow  and  rotation  land  (leaving  only  65  now 
arable,  including  orchard).  Fig.  15  shows  how  very  much 
too  small  ike  barn  already  is  for  my  crops.  The  barn  is 
crammed  full  from  basement  floor  to  ridge-pole ;  gradually 
filled,  settled  and  refilled  during  four  weeks  of  haying  and 
harvest,  and  there  are  (see  Fig.  15)  four  large  stacks  outside, 
two  of  grain  and  two  of  hay— 75  large  loads  of  hay  and  grain 
outside,  and  95  large  loads  inside,  all  from  65  acres  of  tile- 
drained  land ;  for  the  plats  in  the  engravings  classed  as 
"  not  drained,"  and  amounting  in  all  to  about  15  acres,  are 
now  (August,  1891)  nearly  all  tiled,  the  work  being  done  last 
winter  and  spring  too  late  to  have  much  effect  .on  the  crops 
this  year,  and  hence  fairly  classed  as  "not  drained "  in  the 
contrasts. 

The  effect  of  tile  drainage  on  my  bam  room  has  been  such 
as  is  shown  in  Fig.  15.  I  must  next  spring,  if  possible,  en- 
large the  barn  to  nearly  twice  its  present  capacity,  by  lifting 
the  roo/and  not  much  increasing  the  ground  size  of  the  barn. 
If  I  "  pull  down  my  barns  and  build  greater  "  I  trust  it  will 
not  be  in  the  spirit  of  the  man  in  the  Scriptures,  who  was 
called  "  a  fool"  because  he  proposed  to  "  take  his  ease  (loaf), 


50  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,"  like  the  pig  or  the  ox  ;  but  in  the 
spirit  of  thankfulness  that  even  we  owners  of  clayey  farms 
have  been  given,  in  those  farms,  almost  a  mine  of  wealth,  if 
we  only  use  the  brains  given  us  by  Him  who  gave  us  such 
clayey  land ;  if  we  use  our  brains,  I  say,  and  develop  the 
latent  wealth  of  our  farms  by  tile  drainage,  good  tillage,  ma- 
nures, fertilizers,  and  clover. 

And  I  have  pictured  and  described  thus  much  of  the  ef- 
fects of  these  five  handmaidens  of  success,  upon  my  own 
farm,  in  hopes  of  persuading  more  of  my  brother-farmers  on 
such  farms  to  take  the  first  step  toward  real  success,  by 
tiling  each  year  some  small  portion,  at  least,  of  their  farms. 

I  may  add  that  now,  Aug.  10, 1891,  the  winter  apples  on  the 
tiled  part  of  the  orchard  are -simply  grand,  hanging  nearly  as 
full  as  they  blossomed,  for  we  sprayed  the  trees  with  London 
purple  to  kill  the  codling  moths  and  to  prevent  u  wormy  ap- 
ples ;  "  and  though  we  had  the  rainiest  ten  days  of  the  season 
just  during  the  time  of  spraying,  yet  the  spraying,  as  is  evi- 
dent now,  did  very  much  good.  Fig.  16  gives  a  "  specimen 
tree  "  of  Baldwins.  The  photograph  was  taken  about  Oct.  1 , 
just  before  the  apples  were  picked,  after  this  paragraph  was 
first  written.  I  give  the  figure  as  an  incentive  to  owners  of 
clayey  land,  first  to  tile  and  then  to  plant  at  least  a  small 
orchard.  The  apples  do  not  show  so  clearly  as  I  hoped ; 
but  when  Baldwin  limbs  hang  clear  down  to  the  ground,  you 
may  know  that  they  are  very  heavily  loaded.* 

*  The  proof  comes  to  me  Nov.  14.  The  apples  have  been  picked.  This 
tree,  shown  in  the  picture,  yielded  15  bushels  of  beautiful  Baldwins. 
The  tree  is  17  years  old.  The  whole  orchard  yielded  over  1100  bushels, 
and  scarcely  one-fourth  of  the  trees  bore.— W.  T.  C. 


TILE  DKALNAGE.  51 

CHAPTER   IV. 
Does  Tillage  Pay  Better  than  Grazing  ? 

Nearly  all  that  was  said  in  the  second  chapter  was  based 
on  the  assumption  that  tillage  pays  best;  that  the  actual 
plowing  of  the  ground,  and  the  planting  and  tillage  of  crops, 
at  least  on  a  part  of  the  farm,  pay  better  than  exclusive 
grazing  with  no  'agriculture  or  horticuUwe  proper ;  that  is, 
little  tillage  of  farm,  or  planting  of  garden,  orchard,  and  vine- 
yard. The  assumption  has  not  been  in  favor  of  exclusive 
vegetable  farming,  but  of  "  mixed  farming ;  "  not  in  the  sense 
of  confused  raising  of  very  many  kinds  of  crops  and  stock, 
but  in  the  only  proper  sense  of  the  term;  that  is,  the  judi- 
cious blending  of  one  or  more  kinds  of  animal  farming  with 
one  or  more  kinds  of  cereal  and  vegetable  farming,  both  be- 
ing of  kinds  adapted  to  the  soil  of  the  farm  and  the  tastes 
and  talents  of  the  farmer,  and  so  an  anged  as  not  to  bring 
conflict  of  work. 

It  may  be  well  to  say  a  few  words  directly  in  favor  of  this 
assumption,  in  addition  to  the  facts  given  in  Chapter  III  , 
and  to  review  what  is  known  or  believed  concerning  the 
agricultural  development  of  the  human  race  through  its 
various  stages  of  growth.  Such  a  review,  I  believe,  will  es- 
tablish the  truth  that,  by  far  the  largest  population  can  be 
supported  on  any  given  area  under  agriculture  and  horti- 
cultuw—thut  is,  the  plowing  and  tillage  of  farm  and  garden, 
and  that  these  are  the  most  profitable. 

The  first  stage  in  the  agricultural  development  of  man  as 
man,  we  suppose  to  have  been  what  is  called  the  savage 
state.  Men  then  had  language  more  or  less  develoj  ed,  and 
some  power  of  making  and  using  rude  weapons  and  imple- 
ments of  the  chase.  They  hunted  the  forests,  fished  the 
streams,  and  picked  berries,  nuts,  acorns,  and  the  like  ;  that 
is,  they  lived  upon  earth's  spontaneous  products,  chiefly 


52  TILE  DKA1NAGE. 

flesh  and  fish.  Under  this  "forest  "  life  (for  savage  means 
"  pertaining  to  the  forest")  it  took  perhaps  several  hundreds 
or  even  thousands  of  acres  to  give  food  to  a  single  individual. 
There  was  no  tillage  of  cultivated  crops,  no  rearing  of  do- 
mestic animals,  and  the  clothing  was  made  of  the  skins  of 
wild  animals  killed  in  the  chase. 

Next  in  development  came  the  barbarous,  or  nomadic  stage, 
when  men  began  to  keep  domestic  animals,  living  mainly 
on  their  meat,  and  milk  and  its  products,  and  clothing  them- 
selves with  woven  wool  and  goat's  hair,  with  a  scanty  tillage 
of  roots,  cereals,  and  a  few  fruits.  They  lived  a  nomadic 
life  yet,  roaming  the  open  plains  and  valleys  in  tribes,  pas- 
turing their  herds  and  flocks  on  the  spontaneous  vegetation, 
the  stronger  tribes  getting  the  richer  plains  and  valleys. 
There  was  little  tillage  of  crops  as  yet,  for  there  was  neither 
individual  ownership  of  land,  nor  permanence  of  location, 
even  for  the  tribe,  and  the  weaker  tribe  was  always  liable  to 
be  driven  away  from  any  crops  it  might  have  sown  and 
tilled,  just  as  it  was  about  to  harvest  and  use  them.  Under 
this  system,  if  system  it  might  be  called,  there  was  an 
advance  over  the  preceding  in  the  possible  population  to  be 
sustained  on  a  given  area,  and  a  few  score  or  perhaps  hun- 
dreds of  acres  would  support  a  single  person. 

Next  came  the  stage  of  agricw  to/re,  properly  so  called,  based 
on  permanent  location  of  the  tribe,  and  finally  of  the  small 
nation,  with  allotment  of  portions  of  land  to  individuals  for 
more  or  less  permanent  use,  either  by  annual  rental,  long- 
time rental,  for  example  49  years  as  among  the  Jews,  or  by 
actual  sale.  This  gave  individual  reward  proportioned  to 
individual  effoit,  the  only  spur  ever  discovered  sufficiently 
powerful  to  produce  intelligent  and  persistent  effort.  Under 
this  spur,  vegetables,  cereals,  and  fruits  were  increased  in 
variety,  and  improved  in  quality  and  productiveness ;  while 
the  same  was  true  in  regard  to  the  various  kinds  of  domestic 
animals.  Upon  this  basis  of  a  permanent  agriculture  grew 
up  manufactures  and  commerce;  high  civilization  became 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  53 

possible,  and  was  gradually  realized ;  while,  even  with  the 
greatly  increased  ratio  of  food  consumption,  seven  or  eight 
acres  of  land  sufficed  for  the  support  of  each  inhabitant. 
That  is  the  ratio  in  Ohio  to-day,  where  we  have  88  persons 
to  the  square  mile,  or  one  to  each  7i  acres.  Carnivorous  ani- 
mals, that  once  destroyed  the  meat  supply,  and  were  of  no 
real  use  themselves  to  man,  are  themselves  destroyed ;  and 
the  short -horn  beef,  fed  011  purely  vegetable  food,  and 
weighing' 1800  Ibs.  at  three  years  old,  is  raised  on  the  product 
of  as  few  acres  as  the  fox  or  wolf  that  weighed  a  few  pounds. 
Meat  became  far  more  abundant  per  acre,  and  even  per  capi- 
ta; and  the  vegetable,  cereal,  and  fruit  supply  became 
almost  infinitely  better  and  more  abundant,  both  by  the 
development  of  better  and  more  prolific  varieties,  and  the 
invention  of  machinery  for  their  tillage  and  harvest. 

The  highest  stage  is  that  of  horticulture— garden  culture  ; 
that  is,  of  intensive  agriculture,  with  small  farms  tilled  like 
gardens,  as  in  Holland  and  Belgium,  where  nearly  all  the 
land  is  thoroughly  cultivated  in  rotation,  with  the  careful 
saving  of  all  manure,  where  human  food  is  less  of  meat  and 
more  of  fish,  fruit,  vegetables,  and  dairy  products,  and  where 
(Belgium)  there  are  497  people  to  the  square  mile,  and  about 
an  acre  and  a  quarter  feeds,  clothes,  and  shelters  each  inhab- 
itant. 

This  very  rapid  general  survey,  which  might  be  greatly 
widened  in  scope  and  filled  out  in  detail,  seems  to  show  that 
the  position  assumed  in  Chapter  II.  is  a  tenable  and  true 
one;  viz.,  that  tillage  of  the  soil  does  pay  better,  and  sup- 
port a  larger  population  than  exclusive  animal  industry,  graz- 
ing in  summer  and  feeding  in  winter,  with  little  or  no  tillage. 
Nature  pays  for  the  increased  labor  put  upon  the  soil. 
If  any  doubt  still  exists,  we  may  dispel  it  by  comparing 
those  parts  of  Ohio,  for  example,  where  we  once  had  dairy- 
ing as  an  almost  exclusive  specialty,  with  no  plowing  and  no 
raising  of  grain,  even  for  flour  for  the  family  or  feed  for  the 
live  stock,^with  those  other  regions  where  the  thorough  till- 


54  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

age  of  a  large  part  of  each  farm  is  practiced,  with  some  live 
stock  and  a  rotation  of  crops.  The  dairy  regions  of  the 
Western  Reserve  are  good  samples  of  the  former,  while 
Stark  and  Wayne  and  the  Miami  Valley  counties  are  good 
samples  of  the  latter.  Formerly  in  the  dairy  regions,  as  al- 
ready intimated,  scarcely  an  acre  was  plowed  on  each  farm ; 
all  the  flour  and  even  most  of  the  potatoes  and  vegetables 
were  bought,  and  not  more  than  15  to  20  cows  could  be  kept 
on  each  hundred  acres,  and  even  these  at  the  expense  of 
considerable  costly  mill  feed.  Under  such  exclusive  dairy- 
ing, with  permanent  pastures  and  meadows,  when  prices  of 
dairy  products  declined  soon  after  the  war,  very  many  farm- 
ers, failing  to  make  a  living,  sold  their  clay  farms,  usually  to 
their  more  forehanded  neighbors  (who  thus  increased  their 
grazing  area),  and  moved  west  or  into  the  towns.  Houses 
and  barns  for  a  time  went  to  decay  on  farms  thus  deserted 
and  massed  into  larger  ones ;  farms  depreciated  fully  one- 
half  in  market  value;  country  schools  and  churches  lan- 
guished, both  for  lack  of  funds  and  of  attendance,  and  a  de- 
crease of  rural  population  and  prosperity  occurred,  not  unlike 
that  in  England  some  300  years  ago  under  the  almost  ex- 
clusive grazing  and  decadence  of  tillage  induced  by  the 
famous  u  fine-wool  craze." 

The  way  out  of  this  for  us  here  has  begun  to  come  by  a 
gradual  return  to  or  beginning  of  tillage ;  for  the  plow  is  the 
forerunner  of  civilization,  and  the  promoter  of  agricultural 
wealth.  Under  surface  drainage  by  plowing  in  high  narrow 
lands,  and  heavily  manuring,  good  crops  of  cereals  and  veg- 
etables may  usually  be  grown  on  clayey  soils,  and  the  heavy 
drain  be  stopped  for  family  flour  and  potatoes  and  fruit,  and 
mill  feed  for  the  dairy.  But  the  possible  area  of  tillage  is 
very  small  under  this  system.  I  believe  that  this  sort  of 
land,  aggregating  perhaps  a  third  or  a  quarter  of  the  area  of 
the  State  of  Ohio,  can  never  be  made  profitable  for  extended 
agriculture,  general  farming,  and  fruit,  grain,  and  vegetable 
growing,  except  by  gradually  tile-draining  a  few  acres  each 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  55 

year,  and  bringing  it  into  productive  shape  by  manures  or 
phosphates,  and  by  wise  tillage,  thorough  cultivation,  and 
free  use  of  clover.  And  I  feel  sure  that  this  land  thus  treat- 
ed will  soon  become  equal,  or  nearly  so,  to  the  fertile  sandy 
loams  of  the  Miami  and  Scioto  valleys,  and  of  Stark,  Wayne, 
R:chland,  and  simil  ir  counties  of  Ohio,  for  the  growth  of 
wheat,  clover,  and  general  farm  crops  and  fruits.  But  it 
takes  more  skill  and  patience  to  manage  such  land.  It  takes 
more  manure  or  fertilizers  at  the  first;  but  their  effects  are 
wonderfully  lasiiny.  But  1  believe  that,  without  tile  drainage 
as  a  basis,  it  will  be  impossible  to  make  such  clayey  land  fit 
for  tillage,  clover  and  rotation  of  crops  to  any  wide  extent— 
in  fact,  fit  for  any  thing  but  a  scanty  and  non  paying  agri- 
culture, chiefly  gra/ing.  I  am  fully  convinced  that,  on  such 
lands,  tile  drainage  will  pay,  provided  it  is  made  simply  tlw 
basis,  and  is  followed  by  a  wise  use  of  all  the  manure  that 
can  be  made  and  saved  from  farm  live  stock  of  right  kinds 
and  good  quality,  by  a  free  use  of  clover,  and  by  such  use  of 
high-grade  superphosphates  as  may  seem  wise  on  actual  and 
careful  experiment  with  them. 

As  a  rule,  superphosphates  show  far  more  striking  effects 
on  clayey  soils  that  need  and  have  tile  drainage  than  on  the 
more  sandy  loams,  or  on  the  limestone  soils  of  Southwestern 
Ohio,  or  the  black  soils  with  limestone  basis  found  in  the 
northwestern  quarter  of  the  State.  I  think  the  moderate  use 
of  superphosphates  wise  upon  these  clayey  soils  if  the  ma- 
nure supply  is  short ;  for,  even  after  they  are  tiled,  they  need 
added  fertility  at  once  over  their  whole  area  to  insure  strong 
growth  of  wheat  and  clover.  And  if  one  is  trying  to  bring 
under  cultivation  considerable  new  areas  each  year,  the  pos- 
sible supply  of  manure  from  live  stock  is  not  sufficient,  and 
clover  as  yet  needs  "  a  starter  "to  make  it  grow  rank  and 
strong  enough  to  have  of  itself  much  fertilizing  value.  For 
the  past  six  or  eight  years  I  have  found  high-grade  super- 
phosphates exactly  the  help  I  have  needed  to  give  the  land  a 
start ;  for  it  is  a  large  undertaking  to  lay  15  miles  of  tiles, 


56  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

reclaiming  nearly  65  acres,  and  fitting  it  for  tillage  and  rota- 
tion of  crops,  and  bringing  it  up  to  a  high  and  paying  grade 
of  fertility.  If  I  had  sooner  known  the  real  value  of  super- 
phosphates on  my  soil  as  plant-food  (not  mere  stimulant, 
"  whisky"),  and  as  a  means  of  starting  successful  wheat  and 
clover  growing  and  rotation — if  I  had  known  this,  I  say, 
fifteen  years  ago  as  well  as  I  do  now,  I  could  certainly  have 
brought  up  the  farm  far  more  rapidly,  and  I  think,  too.  With 
much  better  net  financial  results.  As  it  was,  I  at  nrs.t 
bought  a  good  deal  of  manure  from  town,  and,  of  course, 
made  and  saved  all  I  could,  But  that  was  greatly  insuffi- 
cient. A  shrewd  neighbor,  Judge  S.  II.  Thompson,  once 
said  to  me,  "  Of  course,  you  raise  good  wheat.  There's  just 
about  enough  stable  manure  in  Hudson  village  for  one  clay 
farm,  and  you  buy  all  of  that!" 

As  to  whether  tile  drainage  followed  by  tillage  has  paid 
oh  my  own  farm,  which  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  noii-arable 
clay  farms  of  the  Western  Keserve,  as  to  this  question  I  have 
not  now  a  shadow  of  doubt.  Twenty-six  years  ago  I  began 
with  sheep-farming.  That  did  not  give  work  for  man  and 
team,  and  a  team  the  farmer  must  have.  But  horses  wrill 
soon  "eat  their  own  heads  off"  if  not  kept  at  steady  and 
profitable  work. 

Then  I  tried  dairying,  and,  as  I  did  not  want  my  wife  to  be 
a  dairy  drudge.  I  sold  the  milk  at  the  cheese-factory,  and 
finally  to  customers  on  a  village  milk-route.  That  paid  bet- 
ter—the last  quite  well.  But  still  there  was  not  steady  and 
remunerative  work  for  man  and  team  when  milking  and  de- 
livery were  over  each  day.  Then  I  tried  (as  already  stated) 
plowing  in  narrow  lands  with  deep  dead-furrows  for  surface- 
drainage  ;  but  this  drained  off  only  the  water  on  the  surface 
and  near  the  surface,  and  frequent  crop -failures,  partial  or 
entire,  followed,  especially  where  I  plowed  more  than  I  could 
heavily  manure;  and  clover  was  very  uncertain,  as  it  heaved 
out  badly  with  frost  the  first  winter.  This  convinced  me 
that  our  clayey  soils  not  tile- drained  are  not  fitted  for  ex- 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  57 

tensive  plowing  and  a  successful  rotation  of  crops.  So  I  be- 
gan thorouvli  drainage  about  15  years  ago,  having  before  that 
time  "  tiled  out"  several  "  swales,'1  or  depressions,  and  seen 
the  excellent  results.  As  already  stated,  I  thoroughly  tiled 
about  13  acres  of  my  young  orchard,  laying  laterals  between 
all  rows  of  trees,  38  feet  apart, and  30  inches  deep.  This  field 
had  been  quite  well  manured  in  the  past— much  better  than 
any  other  equal  area  on  the  farm.  But  still  the  crops  would 
fail,  as  already  stated.  But  since  the  drainage,  this  land, 
and  all  other  areas  drained  and  fertilized,  have  been  reliable 
for  tillage  and  crop  rotation. 

The  big  wheat  crop  on  the  orchard,  to  wit,  465  bushels 
from  10  acres,  already  mentioned,  and  the  fine  clover  that 
followed,  were  my  first  rewards  for  tile  drainage.  They  so 
encouraged  me,  that,  in  1878,  I  undertook  the  thorough 
drainage  of  8|  acres  of  smooth  meadow,  and  then  of  36  acres 
of  rough  and  exceedingly  unproductive  pasture  land.  It  was 
so  thin  in  soil,  and  so  subject  to  drouth  in  May,  July,  and 
August,  that  it  was  of  little  real  value.  The  whole  36  acres 
would  hardly  give  summer  pasture  to  seven  cows.  Mr. 
Theodore  ("lark,  of  southern  Portage  County  (a  fruit  and 
wheat  region),  came  by  one  day  during  a  drouth,  and  stopped 
and  said  : 

"I  believe  that  is  the  most  barren-looking  field  I  ever  saw. 
It  looks  like  Sahara. r 

And  it  was  true  then,  16  years  ago.  The  exclusive  and 
close  grazing  of  this  whole  region  left  the  soil  dry  and  hot  in 
summer,  and  showers  could  not  seem  to  fall  upon  it  any  more 
than  upon  Sahara.  They  would  go  around  us,  following  the 
forests,  swamps,  and  water-courses  in  all  directions  from  us. 
In  particular  on  my  farm  it  would  not  rain,  oftentimes,  when 
it  rained  on  a  large  forest  less  than  half  a  mile  north,  and  an- 
other not  half  a  mile  southeast  of  me. 


o8  TILE  IX 

EFFECTS  OF    TILING,  TILLAGE,   AND    TREE-PLANTING    UPON 
RAINFALL. 

Well,  I  went  ahead,  and  now  I  have  nearly  65  acres  tiled, 
tilled,  and  in  rotation  with  line  crops ;  15  acres  of  dense 
orchard,  hedges,  and  roadside  maples,  a  veritable  green  oasis 
where  once  there  was  what  seemed  almost  a  desert,  often,  in 
July,  August,  and  September.  Wheat,  clover,  heavy  timo- 
thy, dense  orchard,  maples,  and  hedges,  with  their  cool  and 
solid  green,  invite  showers,  and  th«y  com?.  Particularly  I 
notice  that  the  orchard,  which  extends  northerly  to  my  ma- 
ple grove,  while  the  latter  merges  into  the  large  forest  still 
further  north,  owned  by  several  of  my  neighbors— this  dense 
orchard  (with  the  big  green  crops)  seems  to  draw  the  showers 
southward  from  the  north  woods,  and  northward  from  the 
south  woods,  so  that  now  the  showers  are  solid  over  the 
whole  farm.  I  think  the  orchard  well  nigh  pays  for  itself  in 
the  increased  rainfall  My  neighbors  all  about  me,  too,  are 
tile-draining  more,  and  plowing  and  cultivating  more,  and 
substituting  a  mixed  agriculture  for  the  exclusive  dairy- 
grazing  specialty  that  had  proved  so  un profitable  and  so 
drouth-producing  ;  and  the  whole  region  is  becoming  better 
watered,  less  subject  to  drouth  in  summer,  and  far  more  fer- 
tile arid  profitable  in  crops. 

To  return  to  my  draining  :  I  had  drained  all  Jnit  about  15 
acres  of  the  65,  when,  in  May,  1880, 1  was  unexpectedly  made 
Secretary  of  the  Ohio  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  and  left 
the  farm,  and  suspended  the  drainage  almost  entirely  for 
eleven  years.  In  May,  Ib86,  I  was  as  unexpectedly  chosen 
President  of  the  Iowa  Agricultural  (College.  November  13, 
1890, 1  resigned  that  presidency,  and  within  a  week  I  had 
begun,  and  within  six  weeks  nearly  finished,  the  remaining 
15  acres. 

I  have  given  these  personal  details,  and  might  give  many 
more,  to  show  why  I  believe  in  the  thorough,  systematic 
tile  drainage  of  such  soils  as  mine,  which  by  nature  are  unfit 
for  extended  tillage.  From  past  experience  and  experiments 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  59 

1  am  convinced  that  I  can  take  the  average  slightly  rolling 
shale-clay  lands  of  Northern  Ohio  (and  similar  latitudes  and 
conditions),  and,  by  tiling  and  proper  tillage,  and  use  of  clo- 
ver, manures,  and  superphosphates,  within  five  years  bring 
such  land  up  profitably  to  a  capacity  of  30  to  35  bushels  of 
wheat  per  acre,  and  clover  and  other  crops  in  proportion.  I 
have  many  times  had  from  30  up  to  even  46i  bushels  of 
wheat  per  acre,  on  ail  the  land  that  was  both  tiled  and  ma- 
mired  or  superphosphated,  and  the  crops  the  first  three  years 
on  the  average  have  paid  for  the  tiling  and  the  fertilizers, 
and  sometimes  much  sooner  than  that.  I  feel  sure,  there- 
fore, ,/irsJ,  that  the  tillage  of  a  part  of  our  farms  pays  better 
than  exclusive  grazing  and  feeding,  on  all  soils  fit  for  culti- 
vation. Second,  I  believe  it  pays  to  fit  for  cultivation  by  tiling 
portions  of  each  clayey  farm  not  fitted  by  nature.  Tiling 
is  the  first  step  toward  agricultural  and  financial  success  on 
thousands  of  clayey  farms  in  many  parts  of  Ohio  and  other 
States,  and  especially  on  the  "  Western  Reserve,"  most  of 
whose  soil  is  like  mine.  Still  further,  I  believe  that  the  dif- 
ference in  actual  average  selling  price  between  these  clayey 
farms  and  those  of  the  naturally  drained  kind,  of  the  Miami 
and  Scioto  Valley  counties,  if  expended  judiciously  in  tiling, 
fertilizers,  and  clover  seed,  will  make  these  farms  pay  as 
well  PS  those,  and  immensely  better  than  now  or  formerly 
under  exclusive  dairying  or  sheep-farming. 

There  are  other  large  areas  of  a  different  sort  all  over  the 
land  that  need  either  partial  drainage  or  systematic  drain- 
age, but  at  wider  intervals  than  the  compact  clays  require. 
First,  as  to  partial  drainage  :  All  over  the  rolling  prairies  of 
Iowa  and  bordering  prairie  States,  and  even  of  the  sandy 
loams,  are  "swales, "or  "sloughs,"  and  " cat-swamps,"  or 
small  wet "  pockets "  that  neerl  perhaps  one  or  two  good 
four-inch  drains  put  through  them  to  make  them  arable  and 
most  produtive.  Without  such  tiling  they  often  produce 
little  but  swamp  grass.  They  have  crooked  margins  or 
boundaries,  and  are  a  serious  hindrance  in  the  tillage  and 


60  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

harvest  operations  in  large  rectangular  fields.  The  agricul- 
ture is  crooked,  and  in  patches,  where  it  might  otherwise  be 
large  and  straight  and  rectangular.  I  have  already  spoken 
(page  14)  of  the  loss  resulting  in  all  tillage  and  harvesting 
operations  with  a  team,  and  especially  with  large  team  im- 
plements like  the  twine-binder.  As  to  the  drainage  of  such 
fields,  Mr.  T.  B.  Terry  says  (admirably  as  usual),  in  his  prize 
farm  report  (Ohio  Agricultural  Keport,  1882,  page  643), 
"There  maybe  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether 
underdraining  pays  where  all  the  land  must  be  drained ; 
but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  pays  to  drain  waste  places, 
such  as  cat-swamps,  swales,  and  low  clay  spots  in  otherwise 
fertile  fields.  It  is  more  work  to  cultivate  around  them  than 
to  go  right  through  ;  or,  perhaps,  in  a  dry  time  we  may  pre- 
pare the  ground  and  sow  the  seed,  only  to  have  it  destroyed 
by  water.  Thus  we  have  all  the  work  to  do  and  no  crop, 
except,  perhaps,  flag,  wild  grass,  or  frogs.7'  Mr.  Terry  him- 
self thoroughly  drained  all  such  places  on  his  farm,  and 
found  that  it  paid  a  very  high  rate  of  interest  on  the  cost  of 
the  drainage.  I  am  amazed  that  all  who,  like  him,  have 
chiefly  fertile,  sandy,  and  gravelly  loams,  with  some  clayey 
admixture  (like  Stark  and  Wayne  Counties  and  Miami  Val- 
ley counties),  or  who  have  rich,  porous  farms  of  rolling 
prairie  soil,  with  similar  depressions — I  say  I  am  amazed 
that  they  do  not  do  the  small  amount  of  tile-draining  neces- 
sary to  make  their  farming  a  delight  instead  of  "  a  weariness 
to  the  flesh."  On  such  farms  tile  drainage  is  least  expen- 
sive of  all  in  proportion  to  area  and  benefits  derived. 

Next  best  it  pays,  probably,  to  tile-drain  the  black-soil 
lands,  once  heavily  wooded,  for  example  like  those  in  the 
great  limestone  region  of  Western  and  especially  of  North- 
western Ohio.  These  soils  are  less  porous  than  the  prairie 
soils  last  described,  but  far  more  porous  than  the  stiff,  clayey 
soils  first  described,  and  like  my  own  farm.  As  a  rule  these 
lands  are  more  level  than  either  of  the  other  classes,  and  most 
of  them  were  originally  timbered.  The  soil  and  subsoil  are 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  61 

often  so  porous  that  the  drains  will  "  draw"  two,  three,  or 
even  four  rods  on  each  side ;  that  is,  the  drains  can  be  four, 
six,  or  even  eight  rods  apart,  -and  yet  drain  the  land  quite 
thoroughly.  Even  without  tile  drainage,  pretty  good  wheat 
may  be  raised  on  such  land  by  plowing  it  in  high  narrow 
lands  with  deep  dead-furrows  kept  well  open  ;  but  on  this 
plan  there  is  often  a  good  deal  of  loss  of  wheat  along  the 
dead-furrows. 

Sometimes  this  kind  of  land  is  so  level  that  outlets  for 
tile  drains  can  be  obtained  only  by  digging  long  open  ditch- 
es, paid  for  by  township  or  county  funds  raised  on  the  equal- 
ized-assessment plan.  After  such  outlet-ditches  are  dug  it 
would  seern  to  be  the  height  of  folly  for  the  individual  farm- 
er to  fail  to  get  the  full  benefit  of  the  big  ditch  he  has  helped 
to  pay  for,  get  his  pay,  I  say,  by  systematically  "tiling  out" 
at  necessary  intervals  all  the  land  he  intends  to  till.  In  such 
regions  they  speak  of  "tiling  out"  the  land;  they  really 
"tile  out"  the  water,  and  leave  the  land  fitted  for  the  best 
agriculture. 

It  thus  seems  clear  to  me  that  tillage  pays  better  than  ex- 
clusive grazing  and  feeding,  even  if  tiling  must  precede  it ; 
partial  tiling,  as  simply  in  the  depressions  of  soils  otherwise 
naturally  drained ;  or  thorough  tiling  by  parallel  laterals, 
though  at  wide  intervals,  as  in  the  black  soils  of  the  prairie 
regions,  or  the  limestone  regions  once  limbered;  or  even 
where  the  laterals  must  be  not  more  than  two  or  three  rods 
apart,  as  on  many  of  the  more  compact  shale- clays  of  the 
Western  Keserve.  As  already  intimated  in  substance,  the 
present  prices  of  these  latter  lands  seem  to  me  to  make  them 
far  cheaper  than  the  lands  of  the  far  West,  which  are  often 
too  arid  for  successful  agriculture  year  after  year ;  cheaper. 
too,  than  the  high-priced,  fertile,  naturally  drained  lands  of 
Ohio— provided  only  that  these  clayey  lands  be  tiled  eco- 
nomically and  well,  and  be  wisely  tilled,  fertilized,  and 
cropped  thereafter.  At  all  events  I  should  be  very  slow  to 
sell  a  farm  well  located  in  the  intellectual,  social,  and  moral 


H2  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

atmosphere  of  the  Western  Reserve,  and  move  to  any  region 
I  know  of,  and  buy  a  farm,  relative  prices  and  advantages 
being  all  carefully  considered. 


CHAPTER   V. 
Where  to  Drain. 

The  facts  and  principles  given  in  Chapters  III.  and  IV. 
help  us  to  answer  this  question  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  gen- 
eral localities  and  kinds  of  land  that  need  and  will  pay  for 
tile  drainage.  For  if,  as  I  believe,  henceforth  with  our  ex- 
isting and  constantly  increasing  population,  and  prices  of 
land,  the  tillage  of  crops  of  cereals,  grasses,  and  root  crops 
in  rotation,  with  live  stock  as  one  factor,  will  pay  better  and 
furnish  more  food^per  acre,  and  give  employment  and  sub- 
sistence to  a  larger  population  than  is  possible  under  ex- 
clusive grazing  and  feeding  of  live  stock  without  the  plow 
as  a  factor;  — if  this^be  true,  then  on  our  clayey  farms  all 
those  areas  should  be  thoroughly  tiled  which  are  needed  for 
tillage  under  such  a  system  of  farming ;  and  certainly  on 
our  more  sandy  loams  all  ^' cat-swamps,"  "swales,"  and 
tc  sloughs  "  should  be  "  tiled  out "  which  are  not  only  them- 
selves unfit  for  tillage  and  crop-bearing  during;  average  sea- 
sons, but  which  run  diagonally  or  crooked  or  scattered 
through  fields  otherwise  rectangular,  and  the  most  of  whose 
area  (i.  e.,  of  the  fields)  is  naturally  underdmined  and  fit  for 
tillage ;  for  such  spots  and  streaks  of  non-arable.]  land  in 
such  fields  render  all  tillage  and  harvesting  operations  an- 
gular, crooked,  annoying,  and  expensive,  as  illustrated  in 
Chapter  I.  by  Fig.  5.  If  you  could  drum  together  all  these 
wet  spots  and  streaks,  like  troops  at  general  muster  or  on 
dress  parade,  and 'put  them  in  one  straight  solid  strip  along 
one'  side  of  the  field,  or  out  of  sight  in  some  back  lot,  it 
would  not  be  so  bad ;  but  like  our  sins,  or  like  the  "  poor 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  63 

relations*'  of  the  rich  and  the  "skeletons  in  the  closets'' 
of  the  high-born  and  aristocratic,  these  "  cat-swamps," 
"  swales,7'  and  the  like,  thrust  themselves  upon  our  notice 
every  "  'bout1'  we  plow,  cultivate,  or  reap.  Like  the  ghost 
of  Banquo  they  "  will  not  down."  But  you  can  "down" 
them  by  putting  their  surplus  water  "  down"  some  80  inches 
into  well  laid  tile  drains,  and  can  thus  make  them  the  most 
productive  parts  of  your  whole  farm. 

But  the  question  where  to  drain  also  includes  many  prac- 
tical questions  as  to  the  exact  location  and  direction  of  the 
main  drains  and  the  laterals  or  collecting  drains  of  a  system. 
It  is  a  good  rule  here  to  follow  nature,  but  not  blindly  nor 
too  closely.  Adam  was  put  into  the  garden  "to  dress  it." 
Man  by  his  intellect  has,  or  may  have,  a  real  though  limited 
dominion,  not  only  over  the  beasts  and  birds  and  fishes,  but 
over  the  earth  and  its  processes  of  production.  And  so  while 
we  "follow  nature"  we  should  lead  her— not  follow  blindly, 
but  with  constant  improvements. 

THE   LOCATION  OF  MAIN  DRAIN*. 

In  general  they  should  follow  the  "dry  brooks;  "  that  is, 
take  the  general  direction  and  location  which  the  water 
takes,  in  a  wet  time,  to  get  off  from  the  land  ;.  for  water, 
taking  its  own  course  along  the  surface,  naturally  takes  what 
scientists  call  "the  path  of  least  resistance."  But  man  can 
improve  upon  this  for  railways,  roads,  tile  drains,  etc.  Kail- 
ways  follow  the  rivers  and  creeks  up  the  mountain  side,  or 
even  on  more  level  land  ;  but  they  constantly  straighten  the 
course  and  lengthen  the  curves,  and  improve  the  grades  by 
cuts  and  fills  and  tunnels  so  as  to  get  a  path  of  less  resist- 
ance under  high  speed  and  with  heavy  loads  for  the  traffic  of 
the  road.  Just  so  the  main  drains  in  a  system  should  in 
ycni'ml  follow  but  straighten  the  dry  brooks  of  a  field,  length- 
ening the  curves  and  correcting  the  grades  and  making 
them  uniform.  Fig.  5,  page  14,  illustrates  this ;  also  Fig.  8, 
page  31.  No  one  should  undertake  to  tile  a  field  without 


64  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

carefully  noticing  the  natural  courses,  for  one  or  two  sea- 
sons, in  high  water  after  heavy  rains  or  thaws. 

THE    DIRECTION    OF    THE    LATERALS. 

The  same  rule  holds  in  regard  to  laterals.  They  should  in 
general  follow,  but  straighten  and  improve,  the  courses  taken 
by  surface-water  in  time  of  freshet  or  flood.  If,  however, 
the  slope  is  not  very  rapid,  convenience  may  lead  us  to  vary 
the  laterals  slightly  from  the  direct  line  down  the  slope.  In 
my  own  first  thorough  drainage,  convenience  amounting 
almost  to  necessity  seemed  to  demand  this.  The  lield  shown 
in  Fig.  8  was  set  out  with  rows  of  young  apple-trees  as  an 
orchard.  These  rows,  of  course,  for  convenience,  were  set 
parallel  to  each  other  and  to  the  sides  of  the  field.  But  the 
exact  slope  was  slightly  angling  with  the  sides,  as  shown  by 
the  darts  in  Fig.  8.  Now,  if  the  laterals  had  followed  this 
exact  course  they  would  have  run  into  or  under  apple-trees 
at  many  points,  and  so  they  were  laid  parallel  to  the  side  of 
the  field  to  which  the  slope  of  the  field  was  most  nearly 
parallel,  and  were  laid  just  half  way  between  the  apple-tree 
rows.  This  is  almost  a  necessity  in  an  orchard,  and  is  a 
great  convenience,  often,  in  other  fields.  As  I  shall  show  in 
the  chapter."  How  to  Drain, "one  can  economize  very  greatly 
in  the  expensive  hand  labor  of  digging,  by  plowing  the  field 
so  as  to  leave  a  dead-furrowT  where  each  drain  is  to  be,  or  by 
running  two  deep  furrows,  one  in  the  bottom  of  the  other, 
with  a  strong  team — four  horses  if  necessary — before  digging 
at  all  by  hand.  I  have  often  saved  much  in  this  way  as  well 
as  by  filling  in  with  the  plow,  both  of  which  can  best  be  done 
if  the  drains  are  parallel  with  some  side  of  the  field,  as  the 
land  can  be  "  plowed  out "  before  digging,  and  "  plowed  in  " 
after  laying  the  tiles  ;  and  so  in  my  own  practice  I  have  tried 
to  follow  two  general  rules  in  thorough  drainage— or,  rather, 
one  rule,  except  as  modified  by  a  second  ;  to  wit : 

First,  run  the  laterals  as  nearly  straight  down  the  slope  as 
may  be  done  consistently  with  the  second  rule  ;  to  wit : 


TILE  DUALIST  AGE.  65 

ti  cond,  make  the  laterals  parallel  with  some  side  of  the 
field,  and  thus  with  the  direction  of  plowing  and  team  work. 

A  R  E    TH  ES.K     R  U  LES    CO R RECT  ? 

1  stated  them  about  as  above  in  a  recent  series  of  articles 
in  The  National  8tocfcman,  and  gave  a  diagram  covering  most 
of  the  points  brought  out  in  Fig.  8.  A  contributor  to  that 
paper  soon  after  criticised  the  rules  and  the  methods ;  and  as 
his  criticism  states  a  popular  belief  which  I  regard  as  incor- 
rect, I  will  give  that  criticism  condensed,  and  also  the  sub- 
stance of  my  reply,  with  due  credit  to  the  paper  named  : 

He  says  (condensed),  "  I  do  not  think  Mr.  C.  is  correct  in 
draining  as  the  cut  represents"7  (straight  down  the  slope, 
according  to  rule  1).  "I  want  the  drains  to  run  either 
crosswise  or  diagonally  from  the  way  the  field  is  to  be 
plowed,  and  also  diagonally  down  the  slope  instead  of 
straight.  Water  naturally  runs  down  hill,  and  it  will  not 
run  sldewise  in  order  to  get  into  the  tiles.  Now,  if  you  plow 
the  field  in  the  same  way  the  drains  run,  the  water  will 
follow  the  furrows  a  long  distance  before  it  will  find  a  drain, 
after  the  ground  gets  full  enough  of  water  for  it  to  run.  The 
.soomv  you  </<t  it  to  a  drain,  the  better.  I  should  run  the  mains 
diagonally  across  the  field,  and  the  laterals  diagonally  the 
other  way/'  This  is  the  substance  of  the  criticism  on  this 
point.  The  entire  criticism  is  based  on  the  assumption  that, 
when  rain  comes  abundantly  enough  to  cause  the  tiles  to 
Mow,  the  action  of  the  water  is  as  follows  :  First,  it  soaks  the 
ground  as  full  as  it  will  hold,  and  then  the  surplus  water 
washes  along  ilu1  surf  (ice,  or  along  the  depressions  of  the 
furrows,  until  it  conies  directly  over  a  line  of  tiles,  and  then 
soaks  straight  down  into  it.  This  is  wholly  wrong.  The 
water  and  drains  should  never  act  in  this  way.  If  the  water 
flows  along  the  surface  thus  until  it  comes  directly  over  the 
drain,  and  then  soaks  down  into  it,  first,  it  will  gully  and 
wash  the  surface,  and  then  it  will  wear  small  vertical  channels 
down  into  the  drain,  and  carry  grit  down,  and  soon  obstruct 


(56  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

the  drain.  The  water  should  always  find  the  tiles  by  soaking 
directly  down  into  the  soil  wherever  it  falls,  and  then,  under 
the  force  of  gravity,  or  hydrostatic  pressure,  soaking  slowly 
sidewise  under  ground  through  the  pores  of  the  soil,  and 
entering  the  tiles  at  their  joints  at  the  sides  and  bottom,  not 
the  top.  Such  is  the  teaching  of  all  the  authorities  on 
drainage.  Such  is  the  way  the  water  and  tiles  actually 
behave  on  my  farm,  according  to  my  careful  observations. 

If  the  theory  of  my  critic  were  correct  it  should  be  carried 
to  its  full  extent,  and  the  drains  run  square  across  the  slope. 
Then  the  water  could  run  straight  down  the  slope  until  it 
came  directly  above  each  drain,  and  at  <>nce  sink  straight 
down  into  it.  This,  I  repeat,  is  exactly  what  we  do  not  want. 
One  chief  object  of  tile  drainage  is  to  prevent  surf  ace- wash, 
and  to  prevent  the  water's  flowing  along  the  surface  at  all ; 
to  open  the  large  pores  of  the  soil  straight  down,  nearly  to 
the  level  of  the  tiles,  and  keep  them  open  so  that,  when  rain 
falls  or  snow  melts  it  may  go  down  these  open  pores  and 
work  off  as  it  descends  gradually  sidewise  in  the  soil  to  the 
tiles;  this  prevents  surface-wash,  filters  the  water,  and  leaves 
all  plant-food  in  the  soil  where  the  roots  can  get  it. 


Fi0.  18.-—  Cross-section  of  tiles  properly  laid;  /.  e.,  straight  down  the 
slope,  so  that  the  siirface  at  right  angles  to  the  drains  shall  be  a  level 
line,  and  the  water  seek  the  drains  equally  from  both  sides,  and  the 
tiles  drain  the  whole  ground  to  uniform  depth. 

Fig.  18  roughly  represents  the  way  water  seeks  tile  drains 
where  they  are  properly  laid  — that  is,  straight  down  the 
slope.  It  gives  a  cross-section  of  two  tile  drains  to  one  who 


TILE  DRAINAGE. 


67 


faces  down  hill.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  surface  of  the 
ground  crosswist-  of  each  drain  will  be  level ;  and  as  the  strata 
of  soil  and  subsoil  in  bowlder  clays  that  need  drainage  are 
usually  nearly  horizontal  (the  slopes  being  made  in  the  past 
largely  by  erosion  and  wash),  the  water  readily  follows  these 
strata  sidewise,  and  a  little  forward  down  the  slope  until  it 
finds  the  tiles  and  enters  them.  But,  now,  suppose  the  drains 


Fig.  19.— Cross-section  of  tiles  improperly  laid,  crosswise  of  the  slope. 
Now,  as  water-  can  soak  only  downward,  by  gravity,  and  only  half  way 
between  the  drains  it  laid  at  the  proper  distance  with  reference  to  the 
porosity  of  the  soil,  it  will  follow  that  a  considerable  part  of  the  land 
down  t  he  slope  from  each  drain  (A,  B,  C,  D,  and  F,  G,  H,  I,  in  the  figure) 
will  not  be  properly  drained.  That  is,  the  "suction  range "  of  a  tile 
drain  is  about  as  great  on  level  ground  as  down  the  slope,  while  up  the 
slope  it  has  almost  none,  owing  to  the  opposing  force  of  gravity. 

are  laid  crosswise  of  the  slope,  as  in  Fig.  19.  As  the  soil 
strata  are  practically  horizontal,  if  the  slope  is  at  all  steep  then 
almost  no  water  enters  the  drain  from  the  downhill  side— see 
Fig.  19.  The  darts  in  each  figure  indicate  the  lateral  flow  of 
the  water  under  hydrostatic  pressure  from  above.  But  in 
Fig.  19,  only  the  water  between  A  and  D,  and  that  between 
F  and  I  can  enter  the  two  drains  from  below,  since  water  can 
not  flow  up  hill.  This  is  all  wrong.  There  should  be  no 
d<>wn  hill  and  practically  useless  side  to  a  tile  drain;  that  is,  it 
should  run  straight  down  the  slope,  and  then  the  water  can 


68  TILE  DKAINAGE. 

soak  into  it  equally  well  from  both  sides,  as  in  Fig.  18,  of 
course  soaking  forward  down  the  slope  (underground) 
slightly,  rather  than  at  an  exact  right  angle  from  where 
it  soaks  into  the  surface. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  the  water  from  twice  as  much 
space  would  soak  down  hill  into  the  tiles  (as  in  Fig.  18),  as 
on  level  ground ;  but,  practically,  no  more  will  do  so.  The 
u  suction  range  "  of  a  tile  drain  depend  more  upon  the  po- 
rosity of  the  soil  than  upon  the  degree  of  the  slope.  Not 
only  is  this  true  theoretically,  but  I  find  it  practically  true, 
as  already  stated  in  connection  with  Figs.  9  and  10,  where 
we  saw  that  a  drain  up  hill  from  a  row  of  apple-trees  helped 
the  trees  very  little. 

One  point  more.  The  plowing  of  a  thoroughly  tiled  field 
should  leave  no  dead  furrows  tor  surface-water  to  follow.  The 
entire  surface  should  be  as  level  and  free  from  depressions 
as  possible ;  then  the  rains  and  melted  snows  will  soak 
straight  down  into  the  soil,  and  reach  the  drains  largely  by 
pressing  up  from  the  lower  level.  If  you  dig  a  ditch  in  a 
wet  time  you  will  see  the  water  ooze  slowly  up  from  the 
bottom  of  your  ditch  as  you  dig  it— or  soon  after  it  is  dug— 
in  clear  ^rnall  streams.  This  shows  exactly  how  and  where 
the  water  should  enter  the  drains;  viz.,  from  below,  under 
the  force  of  hydrostatic  pressure.  Let  me  speak  still  more 
fully  of  the  porosity  of  the  soil  and  subsoil  as  affected  by 
their  stratification.  Most  of  our  subsoils,  and  especially  the 
alluvial  and  drift  subsoils,  as  before  remarked,  lie  in  layers 
or  strata,  nearly  or  quite  horizontal.  Examine  fresh  railway 
cuts  for  a  few  miles  through  such  soils,  or  dig  tile  drains  for 
a  few  weeks  in  bowlder  clay,  and  you  will  see.  That  is, 
these  soils  are  more  porous  horizontally  than  perpendicularly. 
Especially  in  bowlder  clay  I  have  often  noticed  "seams," 
layers,  or  "pockets"  of  sand  or  gravel,  from  which  the 
water  bubbles  up  or  seeps  in  as  soon  as  you  remove  the  im- 
prisoning clay  that  binds  it.  Now,  although  the  soils  that 
need  drainage  are  most  porous  side  wise  (or  horizontally), 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  69 

yet  the  perpendicular  and  diagonal  porosity  is  constantly 
increased,  especially  after  they  are  tiled,  by  the  rains  soak- 
ing down  and  through  to  the  tiles,  and  by  the  roots  growing 
down  vertically  and  diagonally,  as  well  as  horizontally, 
though  to  less  extent  horizontally,  after  drainage  than  be- 
fore. And  so  the  most  of  our  subsoils  are  not,  like  loose 
sand  or  granulated  sugar,  equally  porous  in  all  directions, 
but  are  most  porous  horizontally,  and  next  most  porous  ver- 
tically. 

Refer  once  more  to  Fig.  18,  in  which  I  have  tried  to  illus- 
trate this  in  a  rough  way.  Suppose  tile  drains  to  be  located 
at  r  and  D.  Then  the  rain  falling  (in  a  dry  time  for  exam- 
ple) on  the  slightly  uneven  surface  of  the  ground  all  the 
way  from  A  to  B,  soaks  straight  down,  at  first,  at  all  points 
on  the  surface,  and  not  very  much  sidewise  because  it  falls 
on  all  points  alike.  If  the  ground  is  at  first  quite  dry  it 
drinks  in  the  rain  rapidly  and  greedily,  not  only  into  the 
proper  air-spaces,  but  into  the  larger  capillaries,  which  are 
now  empty  for  some  distance  down  because  the  level  of  hy- 
drostatic water  is  low  from  the  general  dryness  If  the  rain 
continues  long  enough,  then  all  the  pores,  large  and  small, 
air-spaces  and  capillaries,  soon  become  filled  full  up  to  the 
level  of  C  and  D.  Then  if  the  rain  continues,  as  the  water 
can  not  go  down  any  longer  below  0  and  D  it  will  be  forced 
sidewise,  horizontally,  and  sometimes  diagonally,  by  the 
force  of  gravity,  or  hydrostatic  pressure,  and  will  enter  the 
tiles  and  flow  off.  And  the'  point  I  wish  to  emphasize  is, 
that,  if  the  soil  acts  as  it  should  (the  drains  being  laid 
straight  down  the  slope),  the  water  will  enter  the  tiles  as 
fast  as  all  the  pores  at  all  points  of  the  surface  can  receive  and 
convey  it.  But  if  the  drains  are  laid  across  the  slope,  and 
the  water  is  carried  down  the  slope  along  the  surface  to  a 
line  directly  over  the  drain,  then  it  can  soak  down  to  the 
tiles  only  as  fast  as  the  pores  in  this  single  narrow  strip  of 
soil  can  receive  and  convey  it  down.  And  so,  instead  of 
having  the  whole  area  of  the  field  as  a  filter,  you  have  simply 


70  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

a  narrow  strip  over  each  tile-drain.  The  result  will  be,  that, 
so  far  as  this  surface-drainage  is  successful,  it  thwarts  the 
purpose  of  tile  drainage.  The  water  will,  as  stated  before, 
even  work  large  holes  straight  dowrn  to  the  tiles,  and  you 
will  have  little  iiltering  arid  a  final  stoppage  of  the  drains. 
Let  me  once  more  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  water  should 
enter  the  drains  from  their  sides  and  bottom,  and  after  fil- 
tration through  the  entire  soil,  and  not  straight  down  from 
the  surface,  unfiltered.  The  latter  thwarts  the  purpose  and 
prevents  the  benefits  of  tile  drainage. 

RAPIDITY  OF   ABSORPTION   AND   FILTRATION. 

I  have  spoken  of  this  (Chapter  II.,  section  3),  and  of  the 
fact  that  the  soil  of  my  farm  absorbed  and  filtered,  and  my 
drains  carried  away,  about  ten  inches  of  rainfall  in  Februa- 
ry and  March,  1>91,  with  no  surface  wash,  gullying,  or  loss 
of  fertility.  I  have  this  week  been  again  reminded  of  the 
great  absorbing  power  of  a  tile-drained  soil.  We  are  plow- 
ing a  36-acre  field  for  wheat,  across  three  plats — one  timothy, 
one  wheat  stubble,  thick  with  young  clover,  and  one  heavy 
clover  where  wheat  was  harvested  (36  bushels  per  acre)  in 
1890.  Tuesday,  Aug.  11,  the  ground  was  rather  dry  to  plow 
-^driest  in  the  strong  clover  turf,  and  next  driest  in  the  tim- 
othy turf,  dampest  in  the  stubble  and  young  clover.  (I  had 
special  reasons  that  justified  wheat  after  wheat,  and  plo wing- 
under  the  young  clover,  usually  and  justly  considered  bad 
farming.)  Tuesday  noon,  exactly  one  inch  of  rain  fell  in 
about  an  hour,  soon  followed  by  0.26  of  an  inch ;  and  on 
Friday  by  0.91  of  an  inch ;  total,  2.17  inches.  The  ground 
took  it  all  in  as  fast  as  it  came.  The  first  inch  did  not  soak 
down  over  three  inches  into  the  clover  turf  not  yet  plowed, 
and  the  whole  2.17  simply  soaked  down  about  seven  inches 
and  made  it  scarcely  damp  enough  to  plow  best.  I  judge 
that  the  soil  and  subsoil  would  hold  four  inchesgiwre ,  where 
tile- drained,  before  the  drains  would  begin  to  flow.  Soil 
and  subsoil,  where  drained,  are  like  a  vast  sponge,  quick  in 


TILE  DBAlNAGfe  71 

absorbing  and  efficient  in  retaining  the  moisture  until  there 
is  more  than  the  plant-roots  can  hold,  and  then  transmitting 
it  to  the  drains,  rubbed  of  all  its  fertilizing  matters.  The 
latter  are  retained  in  thr  soil  for  the  plants.  This  36-acre  field 
is  all  thoroughly  tiled  (except  between  one  and  two  acres 
recently  added  from  the  pasture,  and  to  be  tiled  this  fall)* 
and  at  this  plowing,  no  dead-furrows  (except  three  short 
ones  tilled  nearly  full)  will  be  left  to  encourage  surf  ace- wash, 
and  there  will  be  no  surface-wash.  A  plan  of  the  drainage 
of  this  field  will  be  given  in  one  of  the  chapters  on  "  How  to 
Drain/' 


CHAPTER   VI. 
When  to  Drain. 

This  will  be  discussed,  first,  with  reference  to  funds  and 
financial  policy;  i.e.,  When  can  we  afford  to  drain?  Sec- 
ond, with  reference  to  economy;  /.  e.,  What  times  of  year 
can  we  drain  best  and  most  cheaply  ? 

First,  then,  When  can  we  afford  to  drain  V  I  answer,  We 
CUR  not  afford  not  to  drain  if  we  have  land  that  we  need  for 
tillage  and  rotation,  and  which  is  naturally  unfit  for  it,  but 
which  can  be  fitted  for  it  by  tile  drainage.  Shall  we  wait 
till  we  are  out  of  debt  and  have  money  to  tile  it,  or  shall  we 
tile  it  in  order  to  get  out  of  debt  V  The  latter,  as  a  rule.  If 
you  are  buying  a  clayey  farm,  buy  a  smaller  one  and  spend 
the  rest  of  the  purchase  money  (or  debt  for  purchase)  in  ju- 
diciously tiling  all  needed  for  present  rotation,  and  increase 
the  drained  area  with  increasing  prosperity.  If  you  already 
own  a  clayey  farm,  sell  part  of  it  if  you  can  (as  I  have  lately 
done  11  acres),  and  put  the  money  received  for  it  into  tiling 
some  of  that  not  sold  (as  I  have  just  done).  I  practice  what 
I  preach.  If  necessary,  even  run  in  debt  cautiously,  and  as 
little  as  possible,  in  order  to  tile,  and  then  farm  it  your  very 
best  to  pay  the  debt.  This  I  did  while  still  pretty  heavily  in 


72  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

debt  (mortgage  too)  for  the  purchase  price  of  my  farm  ;  and 
I  doubt  whether  I  could  have  got  out  of  debt  without  thus 
draining-  as  a  basis  for  wheat,  orchard,  clover,  and  the  best 
tillage  of  the  land  and  use  of  the  manure  from  dairy  and 
teams.  It  helped  me  to  profitable  crops  of  wheat  regularly 
on  all  land  tiled  and  properly  manured  or  fertilized,  and  it 
made  the  manures  and  fertilizers  go  twice  as  far  (into  the 
soil  and  crops),  because  it  kept  them  from  going  half  as  far 
(off  from  the  farm  in  surface  wash).  This  drainage  helped 
me  to  get  profitable  crops  of  wheat  and  clover  regularly,  and 
over  constantly  increasing  areas,  instead  of  occasionally  and 
over  small  areas  heavily  manured  and  surface  drained  by 
deep  dead-furrows  between  high,  narrow  lands  as  before.  It 
was,  I  think,rthe  one  thing  that  paid  best  on  my  clayey 
farm,  and  was  the  very  foundation  for  the  successful  tillage 
and  improvement  of  a  soil  which  is  naturally  unproductive 
and  even  infertile,  until  it  has  become  one  of  great  produc- 
tiveness for  all  crops.  Some  of  these  facts  in  regard  to  the 
rewards  of  tiling  on  my  own  land  I  have  already  given. 
And  I  repeat  my  belief,  that  the  clayey  soils  of  the  Western 
Reserve,  naturally  rather  infertile  except  for  grass,  and 
naturally  irresponsive  to  tillage,  can  be  made  to  be  really 
paying  farms  financially,  only  by  the  thorough  tile  drainage 
of  considerable  portions  of  their  area  and  their  careful  culti- 
vation in  connection  with  dairying  or  other  keeping  of  good 
live  stock. 

But  this  does  not  imply  that  the  work  should  all  be  done 
in  one  year  or  even  five,  or  be  done  by  expensive  hired  labor. 
A  few  acres,  even  one  or  two,  can  be  tiled  each  year  when 
other  work  is  light,  and  when  the  tiling  can  be  done  by  the 
owner  himself  with  the  regular  farm  force. 

THE  SEASON  OF  THE  YEAR  TO  TILE. 

By  November  15th  or  20th  the  usual"  fall  work"  of  the 
farm  should  be  done  up.  Then  if  the  system  of  drainage  is 
properly  planned  arid  laid  out,  the  work  of  drainage  can  go 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  78 

on  all  winter,  except  a  few  severe  days,  in  latitude  37  to  41°. 
The  winter  care  of  farm  stock  morning  and  night  will  be 
about  all  that  need  interfere  with  the  ditching, 

After  the  fall  rains  have  soaked  the  earth,  but  not  made  it 
too  soft,  say  about  October  1st  or  15th,  the  general  location 
of  the  mains  and  laterals  should  be  carefully  determined  by 
spirit-level, if  the  eye  and  the  remembrance  of  past  wet  times 
are  not  enough  ;  and  the  exact  location  be  measured  off  with 
tape-line,  and  indicated  by  tall  stakes,  and  a  deep  furrow  be 
plowed  with  a  strong  team  just  where  each  drain  is  to  be, 
shading  deeper  through  short  knolls,  and  shallower  through 
each  depression,  so  as  to  approximate  a  true  grade.  A 
month  or  so  of  heavy  fall  rains  will  cut  and  fill  in  the  bot- 
tom of  these  furrows,  giving  still  more  nearly  a  true  grade. 
Then,  just  before  the  hand-digging  and  tile-laying  begin,  the 
latter  p  irt  of  November,  plow  a  second  furrow  in  the  bot- 
tom of  each,  trying  hard  to  improve  the  grade  as  indicated 
by  the  cutting  and  filling  of  the  earth  by  the  rains.  My  sys- 
tem for  in  arly  three  miles  of  drains,  draining  about  fifteen 
acres  three  rods  apart,  was  thus  laid  out  the  first  week  in 
October,  1890.  The  second  furrows  were  plowed  the  tlrrd 
week  in  November.  A  day  and  a  half  with  man  and  team 
laid  them  out  and  plowed  both  furrows,  making  the  drains 
some  8  inches  dee]).  It  would  have  cost  some  $50  to  do  this 
with  line  and  spade,  and  the  grading  would  not  have  been  so 
good. 

The  advantage,  however,  in  thus  "taking  time  by  the 
forelock"  is  not  merely  the  saving  in  hand-digging,  but  the 
fact  that  we  thus  have  the  full  preparation  for  winter  ditch- 
ing made  in  two  days  in  fall.  The  loose  earth  in  the  bottom 
of  the  furrows,  and  the  snow  that  blows  into  and  lodges  in 
them  d.uring  even  the  short  flurries  of  snow,  keep  the  ground 
from  fi-cczhuj  too  hard  to  dig  all  winter  long.  From  Nov. 
18  to  Dec.  22,  last  fall  there  were  only  two  days  when  we 
could  not  dig  with  comfort,  and  very  few  days  the  rest  of 
the  winter  and  spring  up  to  April  first.  This  utilizes  the 


74  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

winter  labor  of  the  regular  farm  force,  and  makes  the  actual 
cash  outlay  to  the  average  farmer  little  more  than  the  bare 
cost*  of  tiles  This  answers  the  question  as  to  when  we  can 
dig  most  economically. 

Details  of  this  winter  work  will  be  given  in  the  succeed- 
ing chapters  on  "How  to  Drain,"'  and  estimates  will  be 
given  of  the  actual  cost  of  the  work. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

How  to  Drain  ;    The  Tiles. 

Not  only  have  tiles  superseded  all  other  kinds  of  material 
for  drains,  but  round  tiles,  without  collars  or  joints,  have 
virtually  sunerseded  all  other  shapes  of  tiles,  such  as  the 
horseshoe  tiles,  the  sole  tiles,  the  socket  or  collar  tiles,  the 
oval  tiles,  etc.  Cylindrical  ti]es  are  cheaper,  stronger,  bet- 
ter in  all  respects  than  any  other ;  and  for  ordinary  drainage 
there  is  no  need  of  sockets,  joints,  or  collars.  Hence  we  de- 
scribe and  refer  to  none  but  the  cylindrical  tiles.  They  may 
be  octagonal  outside,  without  damage,  and  that  form  is 
slightly  more  convenient  in  handling,  shipping,  and  laying, 
because  they  lie  still  better,  and  do  not  roll  so  much  in  piling 
in  car  or  wagon.  But  this  is  not  important.  Buy  the  fully 
cylindrical  or  the  octagonal  outside  and  cylindrical  inside,  as 
may  be  cheapest  and  most  covenient.  Buy  the  sort  that  is 
made  nearest  and  costs  least,  if  equally  good  otherwise. 

MATERIAL   AND   HARDNESS  OF  THE  TILES. 

Tiles  are  made  of  brick  clay,  and  are  then  called  "  soft 
tiles;1'  also  of  potters'  clay,  and  are  then  called  "hard 
tiles."  The  argument  sometimes  made  for  the  soft  tiles  is 
that  they  admit  the  water  better.  As  this  is  an  important 
matter  in  drainage,  and  as  I  discussed  it  fully,  with  account 
of  experiments,  in  The  County  Gentleman  of  April  23, 1891,  I 
will  here  quote  the  article  entire,  with  full  credit  to  that  pa- 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  75 

per.    I  can  not  state  the  matter  more  clearly  than  1  did 
there. 

EXPERIMENTS    WITH    TILES. 

\\JIKRE  DOES  WATER  GET  INTO  DRAINS  ?  —  ABSORPTION  BY  SOFT 
TILES  DISPROVED  ;  —  VALUE  OF  HARD  TILES. 

Editors  Country  Gentleman:— Some  six  or  eight  years  ago 
Prof.  N.  W.  Lord  and  I  made  some  careful  experiments  with 
tiles  at  the  Ohio  State  University,  which  seemed  to  prove  beyond 
question  that  the  water  enters  tile  drains  at  the  joints,  and  not 
through  the  pores  of  the  tiles.  I  think  that  I  gave  some  account 
of  the  experiments  at  the  time  in  these  columns.  Since  then  I 
have  been  in  the  habit  of  advising  the  use  of  hard  tiles  made  of 
potters'  clay,  if  to  be  had  at  the  same  price,  rather  than  of  the 
soft  red  tiles  made  of  brick  clay,  on  the  ground  of  greater 
probable  durability,  especially  near  the  outlets. 

Mr.  C.  G.  Elliott,  of  Rittman,  ().,  a  manufacturer  of  soft  tiles, 
lately  criticised  this  advice,  given  by  myself,  in  a  western  agri- 
cultural paper,  and  said  that  soft  tiles  are  better  because  porous, 
admitting  the  soil  water  through  their  pores  into  the  interior  of 
the  drains,  as  the  hard  tiles  confessedly  will  not.  I  therefore 
gave  in  reply,  briefly,  my  former  experiments  and  certain  new 
ones  made  with  his  own  tiles  sent  me  by  him  as  fair  samples. 
They  were  excellent  soft  or  brick-clay  tiles.  As  I  have  formerly 
written  to  some  extent  in  these  columns  on  drainage,  I  will  now 
report  my  recent  experiments  and  conclusions. 

First,  I  took  a  four-inch  tile,  medium  burned,  and  set  it  on 
end  in  a  deep  pail  in  plaster-of- Paris  mortar,  and  let  the  plaster 
harden,  inside  and  outside  of  the  tile.  This  completely  closed 
the  bottom  of  the  tile.  I  then  filled  the  tile  full  of  water.  The 
water  sank  perceptibly  in  the  tile  with  a  sort  of  hissing  sound, 
and  the  small  air-bubbles  came  to  the  surface  as  the  pores  of  the 
tile  greedily  drank  in  the  water.  In  eighty  minutes  it  had  sunk 
two  inches,  but  no  water  had  gone  through.  I  filled  it  again  and 
left  it  nine  hours.  It  had  then  sunk  half  an  inch,  but  no  water 
had  gone  through.  I  filled  it  again  and  it  sank  no  more.  Appar- 
ently the  same  capillary  attraction  that  drank  the  water  into  the 
pores  kept  it  in  them,  preventing  its  escape.* 

I  reversed  the  experiment  with  the  same  tile,  still  soaked — 
emptying  the  water  out  of  the  tile  and  filling  the  pail  all  around 
the  empty  tile.  No  'water  came  tlirough,  and  none  was  absorbed, 
as  the  tile  was  saturated  already.  I  then  remembered  that  water- 
is  said  to  filter  through  the  brick  partition  of  a  cistern.  The 
thought  suggested  itself,  that  perhaps  the  water  first  got  through 
the  cracks  between  the  bricks  and  the  mortar,  and  then  with 

*  The  reason  of  tins  is  explained  in  Chapter  II.  of  this  little  book.— 
W.  I.  C. 


76  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

water  on  both  sides  it  might  possibly  go  through  the  brick  on 
that  principle  of  chemical  physics  known  as  osmose  (endosmose 
and  exosmose),  by  which  two  liquids  on  different  sides  of  a  blad- 
der or  membrane  partition  mix  through  the  membrane,  which  is 
impervious  to  either  alone  !  Or,  if  not  on  this  principle,  I  thought 
perhaps  the  water  on  both  sides  of  the  tile  might  relieve  the 
retentive  force  of  the  capillary  attraction  and  so  let  the  water 
through,  while,  owing  to  the  greater  height  on  one  side,  the  force 
of  gravity  might  push  it  through.  The  theory  seemed  all  right 
to  explain  the  alleged  facts  about  cistern  filters,  but  it  wouldn't 
work  on  the  tile.  I  filled  the  tile  full  and  the  pail  half  full,  but 
not  a  drop  would  go  through,  influenced  either  by  gravity,  capil- 
lary attraction,  or  the  molecular  attraction  called  osmose.  Not 
the  fraction  of  a  teaspoonful  could  I  get  to  go  through  in  some 
twelve  hours  of  time,  under  all  the  different  circumstances.  And 
I  may  add  that,  in  the  former  experiments  together  with  Prof. 
Lord,' we  let  the  water  stand  for  days  in  a  rather  damp  basement, 
and  not  a  drop  came  through.  But  in  a  dry  wind  that  evapo- 
rated the  dampness  from  the  moist  surface  of  the  tile,  the  capillary 
attraction  would  supply  the  place  of  the  moisture  thus  evaporated. 

Now,  the  tiles  experimented 'with  in  both  these  cases  were  sim- 
ply medium-burnt  brick-clay  tiles.  But  if  the  land  is  not  drained 
until  the  water  goes  through  the  walls  of  the  tiles  (except  in  case 
of  flaws  or  "  pin-holes"),  it  will  never  be  drained  ;  for  a  tile,  so 
porous  that  its  walls  would  suck  in  one-fifth  of  its  interior  con- 
tents, was  so  impervious  that  it  would  not  let  the  decimal  of  a 
teaspoonful  pass  through  in  twelve  hours. 

I  next  addressed  myself  to  ascertaining  about  how  fast  the 
water  can  ge't  in  at  the  joints.  I  set  another  four-inch  tile  on 
end  on  the  one  that  was  closed  at  the  bottom,  and  was  full  and 
saturated  ;  and  I  held  it  firmly  down  while  my  man  filled  it  by 
turning  in  water  rapidly  from  a  full  pail  ;  and  when  the  tile  was 
even  full  he  cried  k*  Now  !  "  and  my  son  and  I  timed  it  until  it 
had  all  run  out  at  the  joint— just  five  seconds  — eight  gallons  per 
minute  !  But  Gisborne,  one  of  the  earliest  and  best  authorities, 
figures  that,  with  laterals  36  feet  apart,  the  drains  would  remove 
an  inch  of  rainfall  in  13  hours  if  each  tile-junction  will  admit 
two-thirds  of  a  tablespoonful  per  minute  !  And  our  tile  admitted 
(or  let  out)  eight  gallons  per  minute,  under  a  pressure  varying 
from  one  foot  perpendicular  of  water  down  to  nothing — several 
hundred  times  as  fast  as  need  be. 

I  have  written  pretty  fully,  in  hopes  of  exploding  the  old  idea 
that  the  water  soaks  through  the  tiles.  Makers  of  soft  tiles  seem 
still  to  believe  it,  and  some  buyers  too.  Waring  and  other  author- 
ities on  drainage  state  the  case  correctly.  Waring  says  (•'  Drain- 
ing for  Profit  and  Health,  "  p.  77) :  tfc  They  "  —  that  is,  brick-clay 
tiles—"  are  porous  to  the  extent  of  absorbing  a  certain  amount  of 
water,  but  their  porosity  has  nothing  to  do  with  their  use  for 
drainage.  For  this  purpose  they  might  as  well  be  of  glass.  The 
water  enters  them,  not  through  their  walls,  but  at  their  joints, 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  77 

which  can  not  be  made  so  tight  that  they  will  not  admit  the  very 
small  amount  that  will  need  to  enter  at  each  space." 

Of  the  fifteen  miles  of  tile  drains  on  my  little  farm,  nearly  half 
are  hard  potter-clay  tiles,  most  of  them  glazed,  and  about  as  hard 
as  a  jug  or  earthen  crock.  They  can  not  and  do  not  crumble  or 
flake  with  the  frost,  even  at  the  outlets,  where  they  are  constant- 
ly freezing  and  thawing  while  wet :  but  the  brick-clay  tiles  at 
the  outlets  flake  and  shell  to  pieces  with  the  frost.  The  glazed 
potter-clay  tiles  drain  the  land  exactly  as  well  as  the  porous 
ones,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  for  both  sorts  work  perfectly.  I  have 
sometimes  had  the  whole  bottom  course  of  piles  of  brick-clay 
tiles,  lying  directly  on  the  ground,  shell  all  to  pieces  in  a  single 
winter  with  our  frequent  rains  and  quick  freezes  and  thaws. 
And  so  I  prefer  the  hard  tiles  if  they  can  be  had  at  about  the 
same  price.  As  they  are  stronger,  and  burned  harder,  they  can 
be  made  thinner  and  lighter  than  the  brick  tiles,  and  hence  cost 
less  for  freight  and  handling.  I  have  just  weighed  some  with 
the  following  results  : 

3-inch,  soft,  2  Ibs.  13  oz. ;  hard,  2  Ibs.  8  oz. 
3-inch,  soft,  5  Ibs.  13  oz.;  hard,  4  Ibs.  2  oz. 
4-inch,  soft,  7  Ibs.  6  oz. ;  hard,  6  Ibs.  8  oz. 

There  is  less  difference  in  weight  than  in  size,  as  the  soft  ones 
are  lighter  in  specific  gravity  ;  and  there  is  less  difference  in 
weight  than  I  supposed  until  T  tested  them;  also  less  in  propor- 
tion in  the  two-inch  ones. 

Still,  I  think  the  brick-clay  tiles  will  endure  for  centuries,  ex- 
cept at  the  outlets,  if  laid  below  frost,  and  hard  burned.  Each 
one  should  show  clear  red  color,  and  give  a  clear  metallic  ring 
when  struck  with  a  hammer,  or  be  rejected. 

W.  I.  CHAMBERLAIN. 

In  brief,  my  advice  is,  use  hard  tiles  if  you  can  get  them  at 
about  the  same  price  as  the  soft  or  brick-clay  ones.  If  not, 
then  use  the  latter,  but  see  that  they  are  well  burned,  and 
use  the  potter-clay,  or  hard  tiles,  near  all  outlets,  and  for  a 
rod  or  two  back  from  all  outlets.  And  whichever  sort  you 
use,  do  not  delude  yourself  with  the  belief  that  the  water 
enters  the  drains  through  the  pores  of  the  tiles.  It  enters  at 
the  joints.  Sheep  will  not  jump  a  high  fence  when  a  gate 
stands  wide  open.  Also  insist  on  buying  with  the  tiles  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  UT  joints"  or  "  Y  joints,"  or,  at  least,  of 
tiles  with  holes  cut  for  joints  wherever  the  water  enters  the 
main  drain  from  the  laterals. 

Fig.  20,  page  80,  which   illustrates   many  points   to  be 


78  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

brought  out  in  the  next  chapter,  shows  two  T  joints  and  one 
Y  joint  near  the  front  end  of  the  stone  boat,  as  well  as  round 
and  octagonal  tiles,  and  one  socket  tile,  or  sewer-pipe. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

How    to    Drain  ;     The    Tools  ;     Hand    Tools    or 
Machine    Tools? 

In  these  days  of  machinery  shall  we  dig  by  hand,  by  horse 
power,  or  by  steam?  After  much  investigation  I  am  of  the 
clear  opinion  that  the  average  farmer,  on  bowlder'clay,  will 
dig  and  till  most  cheaply  by  hand,  except  the  plowing  of  top 
furrows,  as  described  in  'Chapter  VI.,  and  the  filling  by 
team.  While  I  was  Secretary  of  the  Ohio  State  Board  of 
Agriculture,  a  field  trial  of  steam  and  horse  power  ditch- 
ing-machines was  held  on  the  new  State  Fairgrounds  at 
Columbus,  and  later  another  was  held  in  Marion,  Ohio,  both 
under  my  direction  as  Secretary.  At  the  two  trials,  two 
steam-machines  and  four  or  five  horse-power  ones,  tried 
their  powers,  and  competed  for  the  prizes.  At  Columbus 
the  ground  (common  "glacial  drift,"  or  "  bowlder  clay") 
was  so  stony  that  none  of  the  machines  did  profitable  work. 
At  Marion  it  was  far  lens  stony,  and  one  horse  -  power 
machine,  the  u  Rennie:"  of  Toronto,  Canada,  and  one  steam- 
power  machine,  the  "Plumb,"  from  Illinois,  did  excellent 
and  fairly  paying  work,  provided  a  large  job  of  it  were  to  be 
done  at  a  time  of  year  when  they  could  be  operated.  Either 
of  them,  and  one  or  two  others  of  which  I  know,  would  pay 
on  very  large  jobs  in  practically  stoneless  soil.  But  none  of 
them  will  probably  pay  for  the  average  farmer  on  bowlder 
clay,  and  for  the  following  reasons: 

First,  the  ground  is  usually  too  stony.  Of  the  three  miles 
I  dug  the  past  winter  on  my  own  farm,  scarcely  a  single 
length  of  ten  rods  consecutively  could  have  been  dug  profit- 


THLE  DRAINAGE.  79 

ably  by  any  machine  I  have  yet  seen,  and  I  have  seen  nearly 
all  of  any  reputation.  Stones  occurred  under  ground  every- 
where, from  the  size  of  one's  fist  up  to  the  size  of  a  bushel 
basket  or  even  a  haycock.  To  the  hand-digger  they  are  not 
a  very  great  hindrance.  Those  that  weigh  from  fifty  to  a 
hundred  pounds  or  so  can  be  removed  without  much  delay. 
Where  they  weigh  several  hundred  pounds,  or  even  several 
tons,  one  can  quite  readily  find  their  boundaries  and  curve 
the  ditch  gradually  around  them.  For  example,  Fig.  20 
shows  a  ditch  dug  by  hand  (except  top  course  with  plow)  80 
inches  deep,  and  with  the  tiles  laid,  but  not  covered.  A 
great  bowlder,  probably  weighing  a  ton  or  more,  was  struck, 
two  feet  under  ground.  When  struck  with  a  crowbar  the 
sound  revealed  its  size  to  an -expert  ear  —  too  big  to  be 
moved,  but  with  the  ditch  near  one  side  of  it.  So  I  just 
curved  the  bottom  of  the  ditch  out  of  line  about  one  foot, 
cutting  under  the  side  of  the  bank  and  making  a  total  curve 
some  12  feet  long.  The  water  will  flow  perfectly,  and  it 
hindered  us  so  little  that  we  got  the  usual  amount  done  that 
day.  In  fact,  we  often  struck  similar  ones,  botli  larger  and 
smaller,  below  the  surface,  and  often  had  to  curve  the  ditcli 
or  spend  dollars  in  removing  a  great  bowlder,  only  to  leave  a 
large  deep  hole  in  the  bottom  of  the  ditch  filled  with  soft 
mud,  and  likely  to  cause  a  "sag"  in  the  drain.  But  such 
stones,  in  such  numbers  as  they  usually  cccur  on  bowlder  clays 
that  wed  drainayr,  make  machine  digging  at  any  time  of  the 
year  unprofitable.  Every  stone  makes  a  long  stoppage  of 
four  horses  and  two  men,  and  requires  hand  work  to  remove 
or  dig  around  it. 

S?cfmd,  the  machines  can  not  work  well  on  wet  ground  or 
in  winter,  when  the  top  is  either  muddy  or  frozen  ;  but  that 
is  just  the  time  when  labor  is  cheapest,  when  the  ground 
digs  easiest,  and  when  the  soil  water  serves  to  grade  the 
bottom  of  the  ditch. 

It  will  not,  at  the  present  stage  of  invention,  pay  the  av- 
erage farmer,  I  think,  to  own  a  machine  as  he  does  a  mower 


TILE  DBA  IN  AGE.  SI 

or  twine-binder.  If  any  one  who  owns  one  will  dig  for  you 
by  the  rod  and  board  himself,  and  furnish  hand  work  to  han- 
dle the  bowlders  that  he  strikes,  and  do  it  cheaper,  really,  than 
yon  can  do  the  work  yourself  in  winter  when  you  would  not 
be  earning  much  otherwise— why,  then  hire  him  on  a  clearly 
understood  contract. 

THE  HAND  TOOLS. 

First,  there  is  the  ditching-spade,  for  lifting  the  top  course 
below  the  furrow.  It  is  shown  at  the  extreme  right  of  Fig. 
20,  rear  end  of  stoneboat,  and  in  Fig.  20|,  No.  7.  The  blade 
is  16x6  inches,  square  bottom,  blade  thin,  light,  and  sharp, 
but  curved  cylindrically  to  strengthen  it.  It  must  be  thin 
to  cut  well  and  sharpen  itself  ;  and  liyht,  to  save  lifting 
unnecessary  weight  with  every  spadeful.  The  handle  is 
slightly  bent,  and  lias  a  T  cross  at  the  top.  The  kind  I  use 
are  marked  u  Patent  Ditching-spade,  Antrim  2,"'  and  weigh 
4  Ibs.  '2  o/.  I  bought  m  ne  of  the  George  Worthington  Co., 
Cleveland,  (). 

Second,  the  bolto-titing-xpadt',  light  and  sharp,  and  curved 
like  the  other,  16x4  inches,  but  with  cutting  edge  rounding, 
so  as  to  leave  a  hollow  groove  a  little  over  four  inches  wide 
in  the  bottom  of  the  ditch  for  the  tiles  to  lie  in.  This  spade 
is  seen  in  Fig.  20,  next  to  the  one  first  .described,  at  the  ex- 
treme right,  and  also  in  Fig.  204-,  No.  6. 

Third,  the  scoop  for  cleaning  out  the  crumbs  of  eaith  left  by 
the  spade  in  the  bottom  of  the  tii>.t  course.  The  blade  is 
Mat,  and  curved  slightly,  lengthwise  (that  is,  across  its 
length),  so  as  to  save  friction  in  shoving  it  under  the  loose 
earth.  It  has  a  long  handle,  set  at  such  an  angle  that  the 
workman's  back  need  not  be  much  bent  in  using  it.  It  is 
seen  near  the  right  of  Fig.  20,  its  blade  lying  flat  on  the 
stoneboat,  and  its  handle  slanting  up  behind  the  handles  of 
the  two  spades,  ar.d  also  in  Fig.  20i,  No.  4. 

Fourth,  the  b(  Wviing-scoc.p.  This  is  shown  in  Tig.  20,  a  little 
to  the  left  of  the  other,  and  in  the  same  position,  and  in  Fig. 
L'04,  No.  1.  It  is  a  adouble-ender,"'  made  of  a  half-cylinder  of 


FTG.   201. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  83 

rather  thin  sheet  steel,  rounded  and  sharp  at  both  ends,  and 
hung  near  the  middle  by  a  ratchet  (or  clamp)  arrangement  that 
permits  it  to  be  adjusted  to  any  angle.  They  are  made  of  dif- 
ferent sizes.  I  use  a  two-inch  one  (single-ended  and  not 
adjustable),  and  a  four-inch  one  seen  in  the  figure.  The  two- 
inch  one  is  seen  in  the  hands  of  the  workman  who  stands  in 
the  ditch,  Fig.  20,  and  is  best  for  cutting  a  true  groove  for 
two-inch  tiles  after  the  other  lias  cleaned  out  the  crumbs, 
and  left  a  wider-grooved  bottom.  The  position  of  the  work- 
man in  using  the  scoop  is  best  shown  in  Fig.  26,  page  94. 

Fifth,  the  span-level,  for  determining  grade.  Mine  is  a 
home-made  affair  —  simply  a  triangle,  or  Greek  delta,  Hi  A 
feet  on  each  side,  made  of  two-inch  pine  or  poplar,  plain  — 
battens,  and  has  a  spirit-level  screwed  accurately  to  the 
cross-batten  that  makes  a  capital  letter  A  of  the  triangle. 
Care  must  be  taken  that  the  spirit-level  be  exactly  parallel 
to  the  ba^e  of  the  triangle.  For  convenience  in  using,  a 
short  inch  strip  is  tacked  to  each  end  of  the  bottom  edge  of 
the  base.  The  level  is  graduated  to  show  a  grade  of  one, 
two,  and  three  inches  to  the  rod.  Its  use  will  be  described 
later.  It  is  seen  in  Fig.  20,  standing  on  the  stoneboat  in  the 
background,  or,  rather,  back  of  the  other  tools. 

Sixth,  the  tile-hook.  It  is  seen  in  Fig.  20,  in  the  hands  of 
the  first  workman,  who  has  a  tile  on  it,  which  he  is  just  in 
the  act  of  laying  in  position  in  the  ditch.  It  saves  getting 
down  into  the.  ditch.  But  often  1  prefer  to  lay  by  hand, 
when  the  ditch  is  not  too  "nasty,"  standing  on  each  tile  as 
laid,  and  pressing  it  firmly  into  place. 

Seventh,  the  fiUiny-Jwolc.  It  is  seen  leaning  against  the 
span-level,  in  Fig.  20;  also  in  Fig.  20i,  No.  8.  Its  tines  are 
a  foot  long,  and  are  flat,  about  I  inch  wide,  and  very  strong. 
Mine  is  made  by  bending  the  shank  of  a  potato-digging  fork 
to  a  slightly  acute  angle,  and  setting  it  in  a  strong  handle. 
You  strike  it  with  a  sharp  blow  into  the  earth  on  the  side  of 
the  ditch,  and  pull  in  25  to  75  pounds  at  a  time,  according  to 
how  strong  you  feel.  It  is  by  far  the  best  filling  tool  I  know 


84  TILE  DKAINAGE. 

of,  where  one  must  fill  by  hand,  as  on  turf  or  wheat,  or  in 
freezing  weather.  I  also  use  the  common  potato-digging 
fork,  seen  at  the  right  of  Fig  20,  behind  the  spades  and  scoop; 
also  a  shovel  and  hoe,  and  a  strong  garden-rake  for  cleaning 
up  the  crumbs  on  wheat,  or  on  turf  that  is  not  to  be  plowed. 
These,  I  think,  are  all  the  tools  really  needed  for  hand-digging 
and  for  laying  tiles,  except  the  pick  and  crowbar  for  remov- 
ing stones  and  loosening  exceedingly  solid  gravel.  Instru- 
ments for  laying  out  the  drains  will  be  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  that  work. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

How  to  Drain  ;    The  Manipulations  ;     Locating 
the  Drains. 

This  has  been  described  in  part  in  Chapter  VI.  If  there 
is  plenty  of  fall,  and  the  depressions  show  plainly  where  the 
main  drains  should  be,  the  system  may  be  laid  out  by  the 
eye,  with  measuring-tape  and  stakes.  If  not,  then  a  careful 
observation  should  be  made  in  very  wet  weather  (the  fall  and 
winter  preceding),  to  locate  the  low  parts,  where  the  water 
gathers  and  flowrs  off,  and  the  direction  the  water  takes  on 
the  more  level  parts.  If  the  ground  is  very  level  you  had 
better  employ  a  really  expert  drainage  engineer,  or  a  civil 
engineer  who  understands  tile  drainage,  to  lay  off  the  ground 
and  set  grade  stakes,  and  make  a  diagram  on  paper.  A 
diagram,  or  map,  is  an  excellent  thing  to  have  at  any  rate. 
It  is  a  permanent  record  of  the  location  of  drains.  It  helps 
one  to  find  readily  the  main  drains,  if,  at  some  future  time, 
he  wishes  to  find  them  to  introduce  new  laterals.  In  my 
own  case  I  have  often  desired  to  do  this  during  the  last  20 
years,  as  some  of  my  mains  were  laid  even  longer  ago  than 
that,  and  the  laterals  not  all  laid,  in  some  cases,  until  many 
years  later.  The  mains  are  thus  easily  found,  and  in  every 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  85 

case  have  been  found  where  the  map"  indicated,  and  to  be  as 
clean  inside  as  it'  just  washed  out  and  rinsed  out.  That  was 
just  what  was  done  at  the  last  wet  time  preceding. 


THE    I)I(i(;lN(i. 

Where  shall  we  begin  to  dig  and  lay  V  At  the  outlet,  as  a 
rule.  You  must  begin  there  it'  your  work  is  to  go  on  late  in 
the  fall,  or  all  winter,  or  very  early  in  the  spring  ;  that  is, 
during  freezing  and  thawing  weather.  You  must  dig  and 
lay  and  fill,  as  you  go.  Sometimes  the  earth  thrown  out  will 
begin  to  freeze  in  an  hour  or  two  enough  to  obstruct  the  till- 
ing, and,  if  left  over  night,  it  will  often  freeze  so  solid  that 
it  can  not  be  filled  in  for  days  or  even  weeks.  The  sides  of 
the  ditch,  too,  will  freeze  if  the  ditch  is  left  open  long  in 
winter;  and  when  it  thaws  they  will  cave  in  or  slump  in. 
Still  further,  the  earth  fills  in  far  more  easily  immediately 
after  it  is  thrown  out,  and  while  it  remains  in  spadefuls, 
than  if  left  to  settle  together,  especially  if  rain  falls  on  it 
and  soaks  it  into  mud. 

My  plan  for  winter  tiling  (and  it  is  just  as  good  for  other 
seasons  if  all  is  to  be  done  by  hand)  is  to  lay  and  cover  one 
entire  main  drain  first,  seeing  to  it  that  the  outlet  or  outfall 
is  good.  Then  begin  digging  at  the  lower  end  of  the  lower 
lateral,  and  dig  right  down  to  the  main  and  take  up  one 
straight  tile  and  insert  a  T  or  Y  joint  as  the  case  may  re- 
quire. Of  course,  if  the  whole  system  is  laid  out  with  the 
plow  iii  the  fall,  then  the  exact  position  of  each  lateral  is 
fixed  and  clearly  seen,  and  the  T  or  Y  joint  may  be  laid  at 
the  time  the  ma;n  is  laid,  and  its  open  part  stopped  with  a 
Hat  stone.  Either  way  will  do.  In  the  days  when  we  could 
get  no  joints  or  junctions,  T  or  Y,  nor  even  get  tiles  with 
holes  for  lateral  junctions  cut  in  them  before  baking,  we  had 
to  peck  a  hole  in  a  tile,  or  at  the  junction  of  two  tiles,  with 
a  sharp-pointed  hammer,  and  that  had  to  be  done,  or  at  least 
could  be  best  done,  when  the  main  was  first  laid  ;  and  so  I 
used  to  lay  a  few  lengths  of  each  ,  lateral,  as  I  came  to  each 


86  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

in  laying  the  main,  and  stop  up  the  end  of  the  lateral  with  a 
wad  of  straw  until  we  began  on  each  again.  But  with  joints 
for  laterals  ready  made,  the  first  way  is  much  the  easiest. 
In  either  way  the  lateral  furrow  should  be  dammed  up  and 
the  water  turned  off  a  few  feet  above  where  the  lateral 
enters  the  main,  so  that  surface-water  will  not  flood  down 
the  furrow  and  wash  out  or  choke  up  the  main  before  the 
lateral  is  laid. 

THE  DIGGING. 

"  Any  fool  can  dig  V"  No,  it  takes  skill,  won  only  by 
thought  and  practice,  to  dig  rapidly  and  well,  and  not  make 
hard  work  of  it.  I  have  had  many  men  stronger  than  I,  and 
with  more  power  of  endurance ;  but  only  one,  I  think,  who 
could  dig  more  rods  of  ditch  in  a  day  than  I,  and  leave  a 
true  grade  in  the  bottom.  He  was  an  expert  ditcher  who 
had  followed  the  work  as  a  business  for  years,  and  had 
splendid  muscle,  great  endurance,  and  a  true  eye  and  hand. 

DON'T  BURY  THE   SPADE. 

The  first  point  in  rapid,  e  isy  ditching,  is  to  keep  one  side- 
edge  of  the  spade  out  of  the  earth,  in  sight,  each  spadeful. 
Fig.  21  shows  how  a  non-expert  will  bury  both  edges  of  the 
spade  at  gh,  ij,  kl,  mn,  and  have  harder  work  thereby,  both 
in  sinking  the  spade  and  in  breaking  off  the  slice  of  earth. 


Fig.  22.— Expert    dig-g'ing-.    See 
printed  page  herewith. 


Fig.  yl.  -Non-exp 
See  printed  page  herewith. 


TILE  DKAINAGK.  87 

Fig.  22  shows  how  an  expert  will  sink  his  spade  ;  a 6,  cd,  ef, 
being  the  curves  cut  by  the  spade,  and  the  edge  a  being 
"  out "  the  first  cut,  and  tlie  edge  c  being  out  the  second  cut, 
and  so  on.  Thus  held,  the  spade  sinks  more  easily,  and  the 
fmp.  edge  of  the  spadeful  breaks  off  true  and  easily. 

SINKING    THE    SPADE. 

This  is  done  by  a  succession  of  quick  "shoves "or  thrusts 
with  the  foot,  throwing  one's  whole  weight  upon  the  spade 
with  a  quick  impulse,  and  working  the  handle  slightly  back 
and  forth  in  sympathy  with  the  efforts  of  the  foot.  It  will 
take  from  two  or  three  to  six  or  eight "shoves,"  to  send  a 
sixteen-inch  spade  "home,"  the  number  varying  with  the 
hardness  or  stoniness  of  the  cl-iy  and  the  skill  and  muscle  of 
the  digger.  The  bast  way  to' get  this  motion  is  to  watch  a 
real  expert  and  get  him  to  teach  you.  I  almost  never  use  a 
pick  or  mattock.  A  good  ditching  spade  well  handled  will 
dig  almost  any  tiling  but  the  stoniest  clayey  gravel  faster 
alone  than  with  the  help  (?)  of  the  pick,  by  working  ((round 
the  stones. 

PRESERVING    THE   (IKADE. 

This  is  very  important.  I  would  rather  dig  and  grade  the 
bottom  course  complete  than  simply  to  grade  an  uneven 
"  billowy  "  bottom  dug  by  a  careless,  non-expert  digger.  If 
the  proper  grade  is  established  at  the  bottom  of  the  plowed 
furrows,  as  described,  an  expert  will  give  exactly  the  same 
grade  in  the  bottom  of  each  hand-dug  course,  or  "lift,*' 
simply  by  holding  his  spade,  in  digging,  always  at  the  same 
<>m//'  and  thrusting  it  to  the  same  depth,  usually  full  depth. 
This,  too,  is  a  matter  of  practice,  and  requires  skill  to  do  it 
well.  A  green  hand  will  always  "slnde  out  "where  the 
ground  is  very  hard,  and ''shade  in"  where  it  is  soft;  and 
he  will  unconsciously  vary  the  angle  at  which  he  holds  the 
spade.  But  the  more  nearly  perpendicular  it  is  held,  the 
greater  perpendicular  or  actual  depth  it  will  make  when 
sunk  full  length.  "Exactly  perpendicular,  a  sixteen-inch 


88  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

spade  will,  of  course,  make  16  inches  of  perpendicular  depth. 
Exactly  horizontal,  it  will  make  no  depth  at  all.  Held  at 
u  half  pitch,7'  that  is,  at  an  angle  of  4o  degrees,  it  will  make 
about  Hi  inches  of  perpendicular  depth.  As  ordinarily  held 
by  a  good  ditcher,  at  a  slight  angle  from  a  perpendicular, 
say  20  degrees,  it  will  make  about  14  inches.  If  the  entire 
ditch  is  to  be  30  inches,  I  usually  try  to  make  fully  7  or  8 
with  the  plow,  and  13  or  14  with  the  first  spade,  and  that 
leaves  only  8  or  9  inches  for  the  second,  or  bottoming  spade. 
The  subsoil  at  the  bottom  is  far  more  compact  and  hard,  and 
it  is  better  not  to  have  too  deep  a  course  to  dig.  Great  care 
should  be  taken  to  keep  the  grade  of  this  course  exactly 
right,  so  that,  when  you  draw  the  double-ended  crumb- 
cleaner  and  groove-cutter  through  the  few  loose  crumbs  of 
clay  that  are  always  left  by  the  spade  of  even  an  expert, 
you  will  leave  a  true  groove  ready  for  the  tiles.  When  the 
ground  is  very  wet,  or  the  atmosphere  either  moist  or 
frosty,  in  digging  and  cleaning  the  bottom  couise  I  always 
keep  the  crumb  cleaner,  or  "bottorner,"  close  at  hand,  and 
clean  out  the  bottom  and  "true  up  "  the  groove  every  6  or 
8  feet  of  digging,  standing  at  the  top  of  the  bottom  course, 
and  thus  never  getting  into  the  bottom  of  the  ditch.  The 
tiles,  too,  if  the  ditch  is  very  muddy,  are  laid  with  the  tile- 
hook  shown  in  the  hands  of  the  first  workman  in  Fig.  L(). 
This  s-.ives  one  from  getting  very  muddy. 

THE   FOOT-IKON   FOR  DIGGING. 

One  important  little  thing  I  forgot  to  describe  among  the 
digging-tools,  and  that  is  the  foot-iron—see  Fig.  23.  It  is 
made  of  plate  iron  or  steel,  about  an  eighth  of  an  inch  thick. 
It  is  fitted  to  the  bottom  of  the  hollow  of  the  boot,  between 
the  heel  and  the  ball  of  the  foot.  It  is  bent  down  behind 
about  f  inch  at  right  angles,  to  protect  the  boot-heel,  and 
bent  up  on  a  curve  about  an  inch  along  each  side  to  protect 
the  sides  of  the  boot  from  wear  against  the  handle  and  cor- 
ners of  the  spade  in  digging.  It  is  buckled  over  the  instep 


TILE  DRAINAGE. 


89 


like  a  skate,  and  one  strap  passes  around  behind  the  heel, 
and  is  riveted  or  sewed,  on  each  side,  to  the  strap  that  passes 
over  the  instep.  It  should  be  fitted  to  the  boot  you  expect 


i.  -Steel  "foot-iron,"  for  shoving-  the  spade  (showing-  outline  of 
boot-foot  and  leg1,  and  iron  buckled  on  for  work. 

to  wear  in  ditching,  by  a  skillful  blacksmith  and  harness- 
maker,  and  should  fit  just  right,  both  the  iron  and  the  straps. 
It  should  buckle  on  the  outside  of  the  foot,  so  that  the  buckle 
and  loop  shall  not  be  in  the  way  of  the  spade-handle.  It  is 
almost  an  absolute  necessity  with  a  rubber  boot ;  and  even  a 
heavy  leather  sole  is  soon  worn  out  without  it,  and  almost 
immediately  softens  up  so  that  it  is  spongy  and  not  hard  as 
it  should  be  to  thrust  the  spade  most  effectively.  You  can 
send  the  spade  "home"  far  more  quickly  and  easily  with 
the  ditching-iron,  and  it  tires  the  foot  less,  and  saves  the 


90  TILE  DRAttfAGE. 

boot.  It  is  unbuckled,  removed,  and  cleaned  each  night 
and  noon.  They  should  be  kept  ready  made  and  of  various 
sizes  at  hardware  stores  among  ditching  tools,  but  they  are 
not. 

PLACING   THE  EARTH   IN    DIGGING. 

An  expert  will  place  the  earth  in  a  high,  narrow  ridge,' 
very  dose  to  the  edge  of  the  ditch.  Thus  left  it  takes  very  little 
time  or  strength  to  fill  it  in.  if  it  is  filled  almost  as  soon  as 
dug. 

THE    MOTION    IN    THROWING    OUT    EARTH. 

If  your  spade  is  held  nearly  vertical  in  digging,  and  the 
earth  is  either  quite  moist,  so  as  to  slip  on  the  spade,  or  so 
dry  as  to  crumble  into  small  lumps,  a. part  or  'the  whole 
of  the  spadeful  is  inclined  to  escape  from  the  smooth  spade 
and  remain  in  the  ditch.  A  green  hand  will  leave  three  or 
four  times  as  much  loose  earth  in  the  bottom  of  each  "  lift," 
or  coursers  an  expert  digger  will.  The  expert  first  sinks  his 
spade  to  the  true  grade,  keeping  one  side -edge  out  as  de- 
scribed, then  pushes  his  spade-handle  slightly  forward  to 
loosen  the  cut  at  the  top,  and  then  pries  back  with  the 
handle,  lifting  at  the  same  time  with  the  lower  hang,,  and,  as 
soon  as  the  side-edge  and  the  bottom  of  the  spadeful  are 
loosened,  gives  the  whole  a  swing,  or  curved  motion,  outward 
and  upward,  and  lands  the  whole  of  it,  spade  on  top,  close  to 
the  edge  of  the  ditch  ;  and  the  spade  is  sinking  for  the  next 
spadeful  in  a  moment.  The  various  motions  described  follow 
each  other  so  rapidly  that  you  can  hardly  distinguish  them. 
The  point  is,  that  the  spade  is  swung  with  just  such  speed  and 
motion,  and  in  such  a  curve,  that  the  centrifugal  force  holds 
the  earth  against  the  spade-blade  and  prevents  its  either 
slipping  or  crumbling  off.  The  speed  and  the  curve  must  be 
regulated  according  to  the  tendency  of  the  earth  to  slip  or 
crumble.  If  it  sticks  to  the  spade  tightly  you  can  lift  it  as 
you  choose.  If  very  slippery  or  crumby  you  must  give  quite 
a  quick  swing,  and  keep  it  up  until  you  land  it.  I  remember 
that,  when  I  first  learned,  as  a  child,  to  swing  half  a  pailful 


TILE  I) HA IX AGE. 


91 


of  milk  over  my  head,  bottom  side  up,  aided  by  centrifugal 
force,  1  once  unconsciously  stopped,  with  pail  in  mid-air,  to 
explain  to  admiring  village  friends  just  how  the  thing  was 
done,  and  the  milk  descended  ingloriously  upon  my  foolish 
head  !  Just  so,  by  not  getting  the  right  motion  or  "  turn  of 
the  wrist,"  the  green  or  inatten- 
tive hand  lands  much  of  his  loose 
earth  in  the  bottom  of  the  ditch. 
To  dig  a  tile  drain  rapidly,  easi- 
ly, well,  and  with  true  grade,  is  a 
trade  of  skill,  and  takes  as  much 
practice  and  knack  as  to  learn 
how  to  use  plane,  saw,  hammer, 
and  chisel  deftly  and  well.  No, 
"  any  fool "  can  not  dig  tile 
drains  and  lay  tiles  well. 

THE    TIIKEE  -  TINEI)      l)ITCIIIN(i- 
Sl'ADK. 

In  most  of  the  prairie  soils  that 
require  or  need  tiling,  the  oppo- 
site tifa  slipping  or  crumbling 
takes  place.  The  black,  mucky 
earth  is  intensely  sticky.  It  slices 
easily,  being  soft  when  moist, 
and  being  practically  stoneless ; 
but  it  sticks  all  over  the  spade, 
especially  to  its  back,  and  will 
not  tu  let  go.1'  You  can't  dump 
your  spadeful  clean,  and  must 
clean  the  spade  every  few  spade- 
fuls with  trowel  or  large  knife  be- 
fore it  will  slice  the  mucky  earth 
again.  Hence  there  has  been  in- 
vented, and,  of  course,  patented,  ditching.*"" 
what  we  may  call  the  three-tined  sticky  and  innp.ky  soils. 


92  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

ditching-spade.  It  is  shown  in  Fig.  24,  and  consists  of  the 
ordinary  spade-handle,  but,  instead  of  a  full  spade-blade, 
three  strong,  straight,  steel  tines  extend  down  some  IB  in.. 
and  are  smoothly  riveted  to  a  spade-edge;  i.  c.,  a  cutting  edge 
of  about  five  or  six  inches  wide  and  two  inches  deep.  This 
slices  the  mucky  earth  nicely,  while  the  latter  can  not  stick  to 
the  narrow,  square  tapering  tines.  But  these  in  turn  help 
lift  out  the  slice  of  earth.  Such  tined  ditching-spades  are 
found  in  most  of  the  hardware  stores  of  the  prairie  States.  I 
looked  in  all  the  hardware  stores  of  Cleveland,  O.,  in  vain  to 
find  one  to  try  in  my  clay  subsoil.  It  is  so  stony,  and  apt  to 
crumble,  that  1  presume  the  regular  ditching-spade  will  work 
best  here.  I  doubt  whether  the  tined  spade  would  take  such 
dirt  out  clean  enough;  but  I  should  have  liked  to  try  one, 
and  wish  now  that  I  had  sent  west  for  one  by  express.  But 
I  did  not,  and  hence  it  is  simply  my  opinion  that,  on  the 
average,  in  our  clayey  subsoils,  the  regul-ir  ditching-spade 
will  do  the  best  and  cleanest  work.  Still,  in  some  of  our 
clays  at  a  certain  stage  of  dampness  the  earth  sticks  to  the 
back  of  the  spa'de  quite  badly,  and  so  I  usually  carry  an  old_ 
table-knife  in  the  hip-pocket  or  side  leg-pocket  of  jAy  over- 
alls. It  is  the  best  and  quickest  thing  to  clean  tW  spade 
with,  and,  thus  carried,  it  is  always  ready  for  use. 

ESTABLISHING    CLOSE    GRADES. 

When  there  is  an  abundance  of  fall,  as  on  most  of  our 
rolling  clayey  farms,  a  good  hand  and  eye  will  faep  the 
grade,  when  once  established  by  the  plow  and  flood-water, 
near  the  surface  as  described.  But  where  the  grade  is  pretty 
close,  and  you  have  only  an  inch  or  so  to  the  hundred  feet,  it 
is  best,  as  before  stated,  to  get  a  careful  civil  or  drainage 
engineer  to  establish  the  grade  and  set  exact  stakes  as  often 
as  ea?,h  hundred  feet,  each  marked  with  the  exact  depth  of 
the  ditch  at  that  point.  Then  you  can  yourself  set  sighting- 
rods,  or  boning-rods,  as  they  are  sometimes  called;  that  is,  set 
a  stake  about  four  feet  high,  about  a  foot  from  each  edge  of 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  98 

the  proposed  ditch,  at  each  hundred -foot  engineer's  stake, 
and  tack  a  lath  or  batten  exactly  le>vel  across  the  ditch  to  the 
top  of  these  stakes,  so  that  the  top  of  each  lath,  or  sight  ing- rod, 
shall  be  exactly  66  inches  (5|  feet),  for  example,  above  where 
the  bottom  of  the  ditch  must  be  at  that  point,  as  shown  by 
the  engineer's  figures.  Then  have  a  u  sighting-stick,"  or 
batten  witli  cross-stick  at  hand,  itself  also  just  66  inches  long 
(a  convenient  length  for  sighting  over  for  the  average  man), 
and,  as  you  dig  your  bottom  course,  occasionally  set  the. 
sighting-stick  as  nearly  plumb  as  you  can  (this  is  important)  in 
the  bottom  of  the  ditch  as  there  dug,  and  hold  it  plumb  with 
one  hand,  and  sight  over  it,  thus  held,  to  the  next  two  or 
three  sighting-rods  down  or  up  the  ditch.  If  the  top  of  your 
sighting-stick  is  in  exact  line  with  the  sighting-rods,  your 
ditch  at  tha^ point  is  at  the  right  depth.  If  it  is  not  so,  then 
make  it  so.  Or,  you  may  use  your  body  as  a  sighting-stick, 


"sigh ting  stick"  to 


Fig.  25. — Position  of  workman  sighting1  over  the  "sightL.e, ,„ 

the  "  sighting-rods."    Here  he  stands  in  the  ditch  (one  side  represented 
as  removed  at  that  point),  and  sights  along-  the  ditch  already  dug. 


setting  your  sighting-rods  the  exact  height  of  your  eye  as  you 
stand  erect,  and  simply  standing  erect  in  the  bottom  of  the 
ditch  each  time  you  sight  for  grade.  Fig.  25  gives  the  sight- 


94 


TILE  DRAINAGE. 


ing-rods  and  stakes,  and  the  position  of  the  workman  in 
using  the  sighting- stick.  * 

CUTTING    THE    GROOVES    FOR    THE    TILES. 

The  position  of  the  workman  in  doing  the  work  is  shown  in 
Fig.  20  (page  80),  the  middle  workman  there  being  shown  at 
that  work.  But  it  is  shown  more  accurately  in  Fig.  26,  which 


Fig. 26.— Position   of    workman    using-   the    "bottoming- -  scoop"    or 
"  g-roove-cutter."    Here  he  stands  in  the  ditch,  one  side  removed. 

shows  simply  one  plumb  side  of  the  ditch  and  a  workman 
using  the  groove-scoop.  My  own  custom  is  to  remove  the 
crumbs  with  the  double-ended  four-inch  scoop,  and  then  cut 
the  groove  for  two  or  three  inch  tiles  with  a  scoop  of  exactly 
the  right  size,  so  that  the  tiles  (two  or  three  inch  laterals) 
shall  lie  snugly  in  the  groove,  unable  to  roll,  and  with  no 
chance  for  water  to  flow  under  the  tiles  and  gully  the  bottom 
out.  In  fall  and  winter  the !  soil- water  will  commonly  ooze 
into  the  groove  enough  to  show  whether  there  are  any  de- 
pressions in  it,  and  whether  the  grade  is  right.  There  should 
not  be  any  depressions.  If  there  are  any,  then,  after  the  tiles 
are^aid,  sediment  may  slowly  lodge  in  them  and  fill  up  the 
tilefB>artly  or  entirely.  If  there  is  not  enough  soil-water  to 


TILE  DBAINAGE.  95 

show  grade,  then  the  span-level  should  be  carefully  applied 
to  each  eight  feet  of  the  groove  where  there  is  any  possible  doubt; 
or,  water  may  even  be  brought  in  small  quantities  and  poured 
into  a  stretch  of  the  groove  before  the  tiles  are  laid.  If  it 
runs  off  properly  then,  it  will  do  so  ever  afterward.  I  think 
you  feel  a  little  more  certain  you  are  right  when  the  groove  is 
actually  tested  with  water  than  with  either  the  sighting-rods 
or  span-level,  or  both.  But  it  saves  time  to  use  these  first, 
and  finally  use  the  water. 

LAYING    THE    TILES. 

Where  the  sides,  bottom,  and  top  of  the  ditch  are  not  too 
very  muddy  I  prefer  to  stand  in  the  ditch  and  lay  each  tile  by 
hand,  making  sure  that  it  will  not  roll  or  rock,  forcing  it  up 
close  to  those  already  laid,  with  a  slight  backward  swing  of 
the  boot-heel,  and  with  your  whole  weight  pressing  each  tile 
firmly  into  its  groove  and  final  resting-place.  If  the  ditch  is 
very  muddy,  the  tile-hook  (Fig.  20)  may  be  used.  This  work 
should  last  for  centuries  if  well  done.  It  will  not  work  well 
two  years  if  badly  done.  It  pays  to  do  it  well.  Doctors  are 
(slanderously?)  said  to  "bury  their  worst  mistakes."  The 
owner  of  a  farm  can  not  afford  to  do  the  same  in  tile  draining. 

COVERING    THE    TILES. 

I  usually  (unless  I  have  a  real  expert  working  for  me) 
lay  the  tiles  myself,  and  have  laid  most  of  the  80,000  on 
my  farm.  I  also  prefer  to  fill  the  first  course  of  earth  myself, 
using  fine  damp  clay  (not  big  chunks),  even  if  I  have  to  slice 
down  the  (lain])  ditch-sides  to  get  such  clay.  I  thus  fill  in 
about  six  inches  and  tramp  it  hard^with  the  feet.  This  forces 
the  water  to  seek  the  tiles  through  the  natural  pores  of  the 
undug  sides  of  the  ditch,  and  to  enter  at  the  sides  and  bottom, 
instead  of  washing  large  holes  down  through  the  loose  soil, 
and  filling  up  the  drains.  After  the  bottom  course  is  thus 
filled  and  tramped,  the  rest  may  be  filled  in  by  man  or  team, 
and  heaped  up  along  the  line,  and  trusted  to  settle  with  the 
rains  of  winter  and  spring,  and  rolled  down  with  ajfaeavy 


96      •  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

£~ 

iron  roller  in  the  spring,  or  plowed  and  harrowed  with  the 

rest  of  the  field  if  that  is  done. 

THE  UPPER  ENDS  OF  LATERALS. 

These  should  each  be  stopped  up  with  a  small  flat  stone, 
completely  shutting  out  the  dirt  and  the  undue  entrance  of 
water.  Water  should  enter  there  just  as  much  as  at  other 
joints,  and  no  more  —  that  is,  enter  at  the  narrow  crack. 

PROTECTING    THE    OUTLETS. 

It  is  well,  where  water  or  land  vermin  abound,  to  protect 
the  outlets  from  their  entrance  by  strong  galvanized-iron 
screen  work.  The  following  poetic  (?)  squib  illustrates  the 
importance,  of  such  screens.  It  appeared  in  The  Country 
Gentleman,  Jan.  22,  1880;  and  since  that  sedate  periodical 
countenanced  it  then,  we  may,  perhaps,  venture  to  reprint 
it  now.  It  was  suggested  by  finding  the  bones  of  a  rat 
washed  out  at  a  tile  outlet. 


THE  DOLEFUL  TALE  OF   A  RAT. 

Once  a  rat,  in  a  rain, 

Ran  into  a  drain, 
And  said:  "  It  is  perfectly  clear,  sir, 

It  may  thunder  and  pour 

Outside  of  the  door, 
But  it  never  can  storm  in  here,  sir. 

"  I'm  4  as  snug  as  a  mouse  ' 

In  this  fine  dry  house, 
And  fixed  "  just  as  nice  as  a  pin,'  sir; 

For  so  tight  is  the  wall, 

And  the  ceiling  and  all. 
That  the  water  can  never  work  in,  sir. 

"  And  the  door  is  so  small. 

And  so  narrow  the  hall, 
That  there's  not  the  least  fear  of  the  cat,  sir: 

And  so  round  is  it  dug, 

And  so  tidy  and  snug, 
'Twas  just  made  for  the  home  of  a  rat,  sir  !  " 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  97 

So  on  ran  the  rat 

Through  the  "  main  drain,'*  for  that 
Was  so  straight,  and  so  airy  and  big,  sir. 

He  could  gallop  or  trot, 

Or  lie  down  or  "  what  not," 
Or  stand  up  and  dance  you  jig,  sir. 

"  Ho,  ho  !  "  said  the  rat, 
"  Here's  a  smaller  drain  that 
Was  made  for  a  bedroom,  I  know  sir; 
The  door  is  quite  small, 
But  I  know  how  to  crawl, 
So  into  this  bedroom  I'll  go,  sir." 

'Twas  a  pretty  close  fit, 

But  he  squeezed  into  it, 
And  crept  far  along  for  to  see,  sir, 

Whether,  on  as  he  went, 

Along  up  the  ascent, 
Any  bigger  this  bedroom  would  be,  sir. 

Then  he  lay  down  to  dreams; 

But  the  rain,  as  it  seems, 
Grew  harder  the  longer  he  slept,  sir, 

And  soaked  through  the  "  sile," 

And  entered  the  tile, 
And  into  his  sleeping-room  crept,  sir. 

•'  Ho,  ho  !  "  said  the  rat, 
11  What  is  that— what  is  that? 
The  waters  ?— the  waters,  they  flow,  sir  ! 
I'll  turn  me  about, 
And  '  skedaddle  '  right  out, 
For  sure  it  is  high  time  to  go,  sir  !  " 

But,  alas  and  alack  ! 

He  could  neither  go  back 
Nor  forward,  nor  could  he  breathe  there,  sir. 

For  the  waters  they  rose 

Right  over  his  nose, 
Ami  cut  off  Jiis  supply  of  fresh  air,  sir  ! 

(If  the  reason  why 

When  the  rat  vyas  dry 
He  could  enter  the  tile,  you  ask,  sir, 

And  could  not  turn  about 

When  wet,  nor  back  out, 
.Hut  was  tight  as  the  bung  in  a  cask,  sir— 


98  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

Why,  'tis  perfectly  plain, 

And  not  hard  to  explain: 
For,  you  know — if  you  don't,  then  you  ought  'er- 

Though  a  thing  is  quite  small. 

It  don't  stay  so  at  all 
After  soaking  awhile  in  the  water.} 

So,  alas  and  alack  ! 

He  could  neither  go  back 
Nor  forward,  nor  stay,  as  I  said,  sir, 

But  was  "  laid  out  flat," 
"•As  a  drownded  rat," 
In  fact,  he  was — "  mortuus  est"  sir. 

Long  after,  'twould  seena, 
Were  borne  down  by  the  stream/ 
And  found  by  the  farmer,  you  see,  sir, 
Just  the  bones  and  all  that 
Of  this  ill-fated  rat— 
"As  dead  as  a  door-nail"  could  be,  sir. 


FABULA  DOCET—  TO  KAT8  : 

You  may  learn  from  the  fate 

Of  your  mis'able  mate 
To  keep  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  drain,  sirs: 

For  though  it  seems  dry, 

There  are  good  reasons  why 
You  had  better  stay  out  in  the  rain,  sirs! 


FABULA  DOCET  —  TO  FAHMKKS: 

At  the  mouth  of  your  tile 

It  has  happened  ere  while 
Such  "  varmints  "  have  ventured  to  go,  sirs; 

But  it's  not  at  all  hard 

The  outlet  to  guard, 
With  a  grating  they  can  not  go  through,  sirs! 

W.  I.  C. 

French  says,  page  188  of  "Farm  Drainage,"  "They  (the 
vermin  after  entering  at  the  outlet)  persevere  upward  and 
onward  till  they  come,  in  more  senses  than  one,  to  an  un- 
timely end.  Perhaps,  stuck  fast  in  a  small  pipe  tile,  they  die 
a  nightmare  death;  or,  perhaps,  overtaken  by  a  shower,  of 
the  effect  of  which,  in  their  ignorance  of  the  scientific  princi- 
ples of  drainage  they  had  no  conception,  they  are  drowned 
before  they  have  time  for  deliverance  from  the  strait  in 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  <)<J 

which  they  find  themselves,  and  so  are  left,  as  the  poet  strik- 
ingly expresses  it,  4  to  lie  in  cold  obstruction  and  to  rot.' " 
Then  he  speaks  of  the  "  slimy  things  that  creep  with  legs." 
and  which  "  seem  to  imagine  that  drains  are  constructed  for 
their  special  accommodation."  When  they  die  in  the  drains 
they  are  affected  as  "  sighing  and  grief"  affected  Falstaff — 
it  "  blows  them  up  like  a  bladder,"  and,  like  Samson,  "  they 
do  more  mischief  in  their  death  than  in  all  their  life  togeth- 
er. They  swell  up  and  stop  the  water  entirely,  or  partially 
dam  it,  so  that  the  effect  of  the  work  is  impaired." 

kt  To  prevent  injuries  from  this  source  there  should  be  at 
every  outlet  a  grating  or  screen  of  cast  iron  or  of  copper  wire, 
to  prevent  the  intrusion  of  vermin."  The  simplest  way  is  to 
cut  a  square  piece  of  heavy  gal vani zed-iron  screen  or  win- 
dow grating,  a  little  larger  than  the  diameter  of  the  tile  at 
the  outlet  you  wish  to  guard.  Tack  it  firmly  to  two  small 
wooden  stakes,  or  wire  it  to  iron  ones,  and  drive  one  stake 
down  firmly  on  each  side  of  the  outlet,  with  the  screen 
pressed  up  tight  against  the  tile.  Then  it  can  be  removed 
for  cleaning  if  necessary,  and  replaced.  It  is  also  well  to 
have  as  few  actual  outlets  as  possible — gathering  the  various 
laterals  and  sub-mains  all  into  one  great  outlet,  and  guard- 
ing that  properly.  The  open  ditch  at  each  outlet  is  a  source 
of  constant  annoyance.  Cattle  tramp  it ;  frogs,  crawfish, 
and  slimy  things  gather  in  it  and  seek  entrance  to  the  drain, 
and  the  mud  works  in  and  obstructs  the  tiles  unless  it  is 
often  cleaned  away.  The  fewer  outlets  the  better.  My 
largest  outlet,  ten-inch,  discharges  the  water  from  over  25 
acres  of  tiled  land,  and  takes  the  flood- water  from  two  ponds, 
and  these  in  turn  take  the  flood-water  from  40  acres  or  more 
of  untiled  land.  How  this  water  is  handled  will  be  explained 
in  another  chapter.  The  point  now  is,  that  this  one  outlet 
takes  the  water  collected  in  the  two  ponds,  and,  by  some  six 
miles  of  laterals  and  sub-mains,  there  being  not  less  than  65 
separate  laterals  and  8  separate  sub-mains  all  discharging 
through  this  one  outlet.  And  tins  one  outlet  takes  no  more 


100  TILE  DKAINAGE. 

expense  to  screen  it  and  keep  it  in  proper  How,  summer  and 
winter,  and  watch  the  open  ditch  into  which  it  flows,  than 
each  one  of  the  laterals  and  sub-mains  would  require  if  each 
had  a  separate  outlet.  Indeed,  it  requires  less;  for  it  has 
such  force  and  volume  of  discharge  that  it  clears  its  own 
way.  A  map  in  the  next  chapter  illustrates  this  more  fully. 


CHAPTER   X. 
How  to  Drain  ;  Special  Problems. 

One  problem  is,  how  to  handle  large  amounts  of  surface- 
water  coming  from  land  that  lies  higher  up  along  the  water- 
shed or  slope.  Such  a  problem  presented  itself  in  connection 
with  the  thorough  drainage  of  the  lield  of  36  acres  shown  in 
Fig.  27.  First,  let  us  explain  the  handling  of  the  surplus 
water  coming  from  some  40  acres  of  land,  chiefly  pasture  and 
meadow,  and  not  tiled,  and  lying  higher  up  than  the  lield 
itself. 

I  had  the  two  ponds,  A  and  B,  at  the  southwest  side  of  the 
lield  (see  Fig.  27).  Beneath  the  dam  of  the  larger  is  a  two- 
inch  iron  pipe  with  globe- valve  for  discharge  full  size  of  the 
pipe.  This  discharges  into  a  sewer-pipe  catch-basin  marked 
E,  which  connects  by  a  four-inch  tile  drain,  and  this  in  turn 
discharges  down  the  valley  through  the  middle  (six-inch) 
main  (see  map).  The  valve  is  opened  in  high  water.  Also 
the  overflow  from  both  ponds  in  high  water  enters  the  six- 
inch  main  through  the  twenty-inch  catch-basin  in  the  catch- 
pond  on  the  southwest  side  of  the  field,  and  marked  C.  The 
catch-basin  is  of  twenty-inch  sewer-pipe,  and  the  six-inch 
main  enters  it  by  a  reversed  "  trap ''  shown  in  Fig.  28. 

EXPLANATION  OF  MAP,   FIG.  27. 

The  single  straight  lines  are  two-inch  lateral  tile-drains, 
and  the  double  lines  are  main  drains.  Southeast  of  the 


TILE  DRAINAGE 


101 


.MAP  OF   "  SPECIAL  PROBLEM  "  ON  3<>  ACRES. 

Fig.  27.— Thorough  drainage  of  36  acres  (besides  fence-rows  and  head- 
hinds),  situated  on  the  farm  of  W.  I.  Chamberlain.  The  curved  and 
crooked  dotted  lines  are  lines  of  equal  elevation  above  the  outlet, 
14 contour  lines."  They  are  marked  5,  10, 15,  etc.;  that  is,  the  number 
of  feet  of  rise  or  elevation  above  the  outlet.  The  single  straight  lines 
are  2-inch  lateral  drains;  the  double  lines  are  main  drains,  A  is  an  ice 
and  fish  pond,  and  B  a  pond  for  watering  stock.  C  is  a  "catch  pond" 
(usually  dry)  in  which  is  the  "catch-water"  or  "catch-basin"  to  take 
the  pond-water  in  f  ivshets  into  the  6-inch  main. 


102 


TILE  DRAIN  A(i  K 


three  large  diagonal  mains,  the  laterals  are  33  feet  apart, 
northwest  of  these  mains  they  are  49i  feet  apart.  The  for- 
mer were  laid  eleven  years  ago,  and  drained  the  land  so  rap- 
idly and  thoroughly  that,  last  fall  and  winter,  when  I  drained 
the  northwest  part  of  the  field  I  decided  to  put  them  49i 
feet  (three  rods)  apart.  Thus  far  they  seem  to  be  sufficient. 
The  rule  of  running  the  laterals  straight  down  the  slope 
would  make  them  cross  all  contour  lines  (the  dotted  curved 


Fig.  28.— Sewer-pipe  catch-basin,  trap,  6-inch  tiles,  and  section  of  dam 
(D)  of  catch-water  pond  (shown  at  C,  Fig.  27).  When  the  water  overflows 
the  two  large  ponds  it  rises  in  the  catch-water  pond  until  it  overflows 
the  sewer-pipe  at  A,  and  passes  off  through  the  trap  T,  and  through  the 
6  inch  main  B  C,  and  finally  out  at  the  10-inch  outlet  O,  near  the  north- 
east corner  of  the  map,  Fig.  27. 

lines  of  equal  elevation)  <(t  right  angles.  It  will  be  seen  that 
they  do  so  as  nearly  as  is  possible  if  we  are  to  have  a  paral- 
lel system,  which  is  quite  desirable,  saving  trouble  and  ex- 
pense. Near  the  northeast  side  of  the  field  a  number  of  the 
laterals  deflect  and  run  due  north  several  rods  so  as  to  avoid 
quite  a  knoll  shown  on  the  map.  To  run  them  straight 
northwest  through  this  would  have  required  deep  and  expen- 
sive digging. 

A  careful  study  of  the  " contour  lines"  and  darts  will 
show  just  what  course  is  taken  in  the  tiles  by  all  the  surplus 
water  that  falls  on  the  entire  field,  and  why  the  mains  and 


TILE  DRAINAGE. 


10;; 


laterals  were  laid  just  where  they  are.    The  map  will  repay 
careful  study. 

SPECIAL    PROBLEMS   AND    QUESTIONS. 

I  next  touch  upon  several  inquiries,  problems,  and  state- 
ments that  have  come  to  me  by  mail. 

From  Sheboygan,  Mich.,  came  the  following  letter  and 
diagram  which  I  answered  in  The  National  Stockman  in  sub- 
stance as  below.  1  quote  writh  due  credit. 

"  I  have  a  wet,  boggy  piece  of  land,  too  wet  to  pasture,  which  I 
wish  to  drain  into  two  or  throe  reservoirs.  This  diagram  shows 
the  shape,  slope,  and  features  of  the  land,  and  my  plan  concern- 
ing it.  The  darts  show  the  slope.  Could  this  piece  be  drained  by 
cutting  one  ditch  toward  the  southeast  along  the  dotted  line  A  B 
(see  cut),  another  southwest  as  shown  by  the  other  dotted  line 


UEVEL.   DRYISH  LANB. 

Fig.  29.— Problem  submitted. 

CD.  or  will  it  be  necessary  to  cut  other  ditches  running  parallel 
to  the  north  and  west  ditches  [I  don't  understand  this],  or  to  run 
from  A  to  S?  Also  how  far  apart,  how  deep,  and  what  sized 
tiles?  Should  they  be  laid  close,  and  be  mortared  on  top.  or  a 
little  way  apart  on  top  ?  Should  the  ditch  have  a  good  pitch  ?  " 

Now,  this  letter  is  too  indefinite.  The  amount  of  fall  is  not 
given,  nor  the  reason  why  he  wants  to  drain  into  reservoirs. 
Assuming  that  he  has  reasons,  that  he  can't  get  other  (free) 
outlet,  and  that  these  reservoirs  have  gravel  bottoms,  and  that 
they  will  dispose  of  the  water  from  the  bog  so  that  it  will  not  get 
back  into  the  tiles,  1  answer  the  queries  as  follows  : 

Such  a  bog.  unless  the  soil  is  quite  porous,  would  need  drains  30 
to  50  feet  apart  and  r*,1*  to  31.,  feet  deep.  As  to  pitch,  get  all  that 
the  land  will  give  you.  If  nearly  a  dead  level,  "shade  up''  a 
i  rifle,  say  from  IJJ...  feet  deep  at  the  outlet,  to  2%  feet  deep  at  the 
upper  end.  As  to  size  of  tiles,  I  would  use  none  less  than  three  or 
four  inch  in  a  k'  bog."  Lay  the  tiles  as  close  as  possible,  and  use 


104  TILE  DRAINAGE 

no  mortar.  Simply  coyer  with  clay,  if  possible,  six  inches  deep, 
and  tramp  well  before  filling  the  rest.  If  this  is  your  first  job  of 
draining  you  should  get  either  a  good  drainage  engineer  or  an 
expert  practical  tile-ditcher  to  start  you  and  show  you  how. 
From  your  inadequate  description  I  should  say  the  land  should 
be  laid  out  as  below,  in  the  rough  sketch: 


Fig.  30.— Solution  suggested. 

.  This  is  as  near  as  I  can  hit  the  case  from  the  insul'licienl  data 
given  above. 

DRAINS  WITH  NO   OPKX   Ol'TLKTS. 

This  raises  the  general  question  of  drains  without  open 
outlets.  All  through  the  gravelly  drift  soils  and  subsoils  of 
Ohio  may  be  found  cut-like  depressions  so  deep  that  they 
can  not  be  drained  through  to  lower  ground  except  by  cut- 
ting 6,  10,  and  even  15  feet  deep,  or  more,  through  interven- 
ing land,  which  would  cost  too  much.  These  small  pockets 
are  often  excellent  land,  only  subject  to  flooding  by  sudden 
showers  running  down  the  adjacent  slopes  and  not  soaking 
away  until  the  crop,  say  of  wheat  or  potatoes,  is  perhaps 
ruined.  If  the  adjacent  subsoil  is  gravel,  the  problem  may 
be  solved  so  that  it  will  pay.  Mr.  T.  B.  Terry,  of  Hudson, 
O.,  has  drained  a  rather  difficult  one  of  this  sort  lately  (not 
his  first)  by  running  a  main  drain  right  into  the  bank  toward 
where  the  outlet  would  be  if  the  main  were  carried  far 
enough.  This  bank  he  found,  as  he  expected,  to  have  a  por- 
ous gravel  subsoil.  Into  this  he  ran  the  main,  several  rods, 
six  feet  deep  or  more  (if  I  remember  his  statement  correctly), 
until  he  judged  the  distance  gave  the  gravel  time  and  capac- 
ity to  absorb  from  the  tile  main  the  water  brought  by  it 


TILE  DRAINAGE  105 

from  the  cuplike  depression  during  heavy  showers  or  siiow- 
IhaAvs.  Then  in  the  depression  he  laid  a  system  of  laterals, 
pretty  close  together,  and  joined  each  to  the  main,  to  take 
the  surface-water  down  and  into  the  main  rapidly.  He  re- 
ports that  it  works  perfectly,  as  do  other  smaller  systems  of 
drains  without  outlets,  on  his  farm  and  others.  But  for  this 
you  must  have  a  gravelly,  sandy,  or  other  quite  porous  sub- 
soil. 

SILT   OR    SAND    WORKING    IN   AT   THE   JOINTS. 

On  this  subject,  as  well  as  the  foregoing,  I  have  had  no 
experience,  as  all  my  drainage  has  been  where  the  subsoil  is 
clayey.  Hut  I  have  received  so  valuable  a  letter  from  Mr. 
W.  Trowbridge,  of  Painesville,  O.,  that  I  here  give  the  main 
part  of  it. 

This  and  most  of  the  other  queries  and  suggestions  that 
follow  came  to  me  because  of  my  articles  in  The  Ohio  Farmer, 
and  most  of  them  have  been  answered  in  that  paper  in  sub- 
stance as  here.  Mr.  Trowbridge  says  : 

I  do  not  now  remember  of  your  saying  any  thing  about 
covering  the  joints  of  the  tile  with  any  other  material  than 
earth.  Now,  will  you  please  allow  me  to  make  a  suggestion 
or  two? 

1.  As  to  covering  the  joints,  perhaps  in  a  tenacious  clay  no 
other  covering  than  the  material  taken  from  the  ditch  is 
needed.  But  soils  reqummj  draining  are  not  all  days.  Where 
I  have  (lone  the  most  of  my  work,  the  soil  is  sandy  and  a 
black  friable  loam,  underlaid  at  a  depth  of  from  two  to  five 
feet  with  clay.  The  question  was,  how  to  keep  the  fine  sand 
from  entering  and  filling  the  tile.  I  think  I  have  solved  the 
problem  in  a  very  satisfactory  way,  at  least  to  myself.  I  am 
using  common  building-paper,  cut  into  pieces  to  suit  the  size 
of  the  tile  (for  2-Hnch  tile,  2x8i  inches  is  about  right).  One 
of  these  pieces,  laid  over  each  joint,  effectually  pi  events  the 
silt  from  entering  the  tile,  at  least  as  far  as  the  paper  ex- 
tends. In  laying  the  tile  I  always  carry  a  mason's  trowel  in 
my  hand,  and,  after  placing  the  two  ends  of  the  tile  as  close- 
ly together  as  possible,  place  a  trowelful  of  earth  directly  on 
each  paper  as  laid. 

I  have  uncovered  tile  after  it  has  been  in  the  ground  three 
years,  and  always  found  the^paper^intact^and  excluding  the 


106  TILE  DRAINAGE 

dirt  as  well  as  when  first  laid,  but,  of  course,  rotten,  and  of 
no  account  when  disturbed. 

This  idea  of  using  paper  is  not  original  with  me.  I  had  it 
from  Col.  Waring,  in  an  article  of  his  published  (not  in  his 
book)  in  (I  think)  the  American  Agriculturist,  years  after  his 
book  was  issued.  But  the  use  of  buildinq-pafer  is  an  idea  of 
my  own.  I  buy  it  by  the  roll,  expressly  for  this  purpose. 

ESTABLISHING  GRADE. 

.    On  this  point  the  same  letter  says  : 

Another  point,  which  I  think  to  be  very  essential,  is  to  get 
the  bottom  of  the  ditch  of  a  true  and  uniform  grade,  espe- 
cially where  there  is  but  a  slight  fall  For  this  purpose  we 
use  a  light,  strong  linen  line  stretched  directly  over  and  at  a 
certain  height  above  the  proposed  bottom  of  the  ditch  (7  feet 
is  a  convenient  height);  then  with  a  light  wooden  rod  7 
feet  long  the  workman  can  cut  down  so  the  rod  will  just  set 
under  the  line.  By  using  the  rod  at  frequent  intervals,  a 
careful  workman  can,  with  absolute  certainty,  make  a  true 
and  even  grade.  The  line  must  be  supported  at  intervals  of 
about  60  feet. 

This  letter  is  valuable  because  written  out  of  actual,  suc- 
cessful experience.  The  line  he  recommends  is  used  instead  of 
the  "boning -rods,"  mentioned  before  in  this  little  book, 
and  recommended  by  Waring  and  others. 

QUICKSAND   POCKETS. 

I  have,  in  a  few  places,  struck  small  quicksand  pockets 
just  where  the  tile  should  lie.  To  prevent  the  tiles  from 
sinking  out  of  true  I  have  laid  strips  of  board,  1x4  or  1x6 
inches,  and  of  the  necessary  length,  right  on  the  quicksand 
at  the  proper  grade,  and  laid  the  tiles  on  these,  and  covered 
with  clay,  writh  strips  of  tin  or  of  heavy  paper,  over  the 
joints.  Tarred  or  oiled  building-paper  would  be  best.  The 
work  has  been  successful.  Others  who  have  had  longer 
strips  of  quicksand  have  reported  success  by  the  same 
means. 

SILT-BASINS,   ^MAN-HOLES,"  ETC. 

I  have  never  found  these  necessary  for  my  soil,  with  my 
excellent  fall.  The  Storrs  &  Harrison  Co.  (nurseries)  Paines- 
ville,  O.,  have  tiled  large  areas  of  very  level  land  near  Lake 


TILE  DRAINAGE  107 

Erie,  in  Painesville.  Silt,  or  fine  sediment,  troubles  them 
considerably.  At  intervals  they  simply  sink  shallow  wells  in 
the  course  of  long  laterals,  some  three  feet  deeper  than  the 
drain,  and  stone  them  up,  running  the  laterals  into  and  out 
of  these  wells.  The  silt  settles  in  these  wells,  or  "  silt- 
basins,"  and  can  be  cleaned  out  in  dry  times.  I  understand, 
too,  that  they  grade  mainly  by  soil-water,  digging  when  the 
ground  is  wet  and  nursery  work  not  pressing,  and  that  they 
open  up  an  ent're  stretch  of  lateral  and  begin  to  lay  tiles 
from  the  upper  end,  so  that  the  muddy  soil  water  (mud- 
dier while  digging)  may  not  run  into  the  tiles  from  above, 
and  partly  choke  them  in  construction.  Many  of  their  later- 
als, too,  empty  into  deep  open  ditches,  cleaned  out  as  often 
as  necessary,  and  bridged  as  required.  In  such  cases  the 
last  few  tiles  near  the  outlet  are  laid  on  a  narrow  board , 
which  projects  into  the  open  ditch  a  foot  or  so,  and  helps 
keep  the  outlet  clear  and  unobstructed. 

USE  OF   STONES. 

Mr.  A.  13.  Cowan,  of  Morgan  Co.,  says  : 

I  have  land  that  "slips,"  and  is  in  permanent  pasture.  I 
don't  intend  to  plow  it,  as  it  is  heavy  limestone  soil,  and  well 
set  in  blue-grass.  The  question  is^  how  to  drain  it,  as  it  is 
rough.  There  is  a  stone-quarry  above,  and  tons  of  cobble- 
stones. Would  you  advise  digging  a  ditch  and  then  break 
them  and  throw  them  in?  Or  would  it  be  better  to  build  in 
the  stone  so  as  to  make  a  passageway?  1  have  a  quarry 
where  I  can  get  stone  out  from  t  to  2  inches  thick,  and  as 
smooth  as  slate. 

I  would  use  tiles  rather  than  stones.  They  require  less 
width  of  ditch,  and  hence  the  expense  of  digging  is  less. 
They  are  laid  much  more  rapidly  than  stones,  and  last  lon- 
ger unobstructed.  But  if  you  decide  to  use  stones,  then  lay  a 
row  of  long  and  rather  square  cobbles  on  each  side  of  the 
bottom  of  the  ditch,  and  cover  with  flat  stones,  two  courses 
deep,  and  then  throw  in  a  foot  deep  of  loose  stones,  and  then 
lill  with  soil.  This  is  the  way  I  laid  drains  for  my  father  40 
years  ago,  before  tiles  were  made  in  this  region,  and  they 


108  TILE  DRAINAGE 

worked  well  for  many  years.!  This  plan  makes  a  regular 
channel.  Stone  drains  do  p?etty  well  if  each  has  its  outlet, 
but  you  can  not  well  lay  out  a  system  of  mains  and  laterals, 
as  with  tiles.  I  bury  hundreds  of  loads  of  stones  in  excava- 
tions in  sidehills,  and  grade  and  plow  over  them  to  get  them 
out  of  the  way,  and  use  only  tiles  for  drains. 

ROOTS   IN  TILE   DRAINS. 

W.  B.  Hall,  of  Strambury,  Pa.,  asks  about  proper  depth, 
distance  apart,  and  whether  roots  from  a  vineyard  will  ob- 
struct the  drains.  Depth,  21  to  3-J-  feet.  Distance,  2  to  3  rods 
in  compact  clay ;  further  in  more  porous  soils.  The  question 
of  roots  in  drains  is  an  important  one,  and  I  can  not  do  bet- 
ter than  to  quote  from  an  article  by  myself,  in  the  Country 
Gentleman  for  June  17,  1880.  with  such  notes  as  later  experi- 
ence seems  to  require. 

IS    THERE    DANGER    FROM    ROOTS? 

Yes,  and  no.  No,  under  ordinary  circumstances  :  yes.  under 
occasional  conditions.  It  does  not  seem  to  be,  on  the  part  of  the 
roots,  a  question  of  ability,  but  of  desire.  They  can  enter  the 
tiles  without  the  least  difficulty,  but  they  do  not  usually  desire  to 
do  so— at  least,  so  as  to  obstruct  the  drains. 

As  to  the  ability  of  the  roots,  even  of  wheat  and  clover,  and 
other  cereals  and  grasses,  to  enter  the  drains,  I  have  not  now  the 
slightest  doubt.  I  formerly  supposed  the  cases  given  in  the 
books,  of  wheat  roots,  etc.,  growing  to  a  depth  of  three  feet,  and 
even  four,  were  somewhat  exceptional,  or  applied  only  to  mellow 
subsoil,  and  that  in  a  very  hard,  stiff  clay  they  would  not  extend 
so  deep.  But  I  have  lately  finished  laying  about  three  miles  of 
tiles,  three  feet  deep,  in  a  wheat-field  where  wheat  grew  last 
year  too;  and  every  spadeful  that  I  took  the  trouble  to  examine, 
even  from  the  bottom  course,  had  very  many  tine,  live  wheat 
roots  all  through  it,  and  many  nearly  decayed  roots  of  last  year's 
wheat.  How  much  deeper  than  three  feet  they  went  I  did  not 
dig  to  ascertain,  except  that  our  drains  sometimes,  from  uneven- 
ness  of  surface,  went  as  low  as  three  and  a  half  feet,  but  never 
below  the  roots.  Though  not  in  my  present  line  of  thought,  I 
can  not  but  notice  the  wisdom  of  this  provision  of  nature.  The 
surface  was  very  dry  — no  rain  for  four  weeks;  but  the  subsoil  at 
the  depth  of  three  feet,  or  even  two,  was  quite  moist,  and  these 
roots  pumped  water  to  keep  the  wheat  from  withering.  Wheat, 
we  all  know,  stands  drouth  wonderfully,  especially  on  clayey 
loam,  and  the  reason  is  plain. 


TILE  DRAINAGE  109 

WHY    ROOTS    DO    NOT    USUALLY    OBSTRUCT    DRAINS. 

Because  they  do  not  wish  to  do  so.  in  a  well -constructed  drain 
there  is  ordinarily  no  inducement.  A  few  days  ago  I  took  up  a 
joint  of  an  old  main  to  insert  a  new  lateral,  and  examined  closely. 
There  were  plenty  of  wheat  roots  about  the  tile,  and  a  few  had 
feebly  entered  the  cracks.  But  finding  no  moisture  and  no  soil  or 
"  silt"— in  short,  nothing  but  a  dry,  empty  hole  — they  had  given 
it  up  as  a  bad  job,  and  literally  backed  out  and  gone  again  into 
the  soil  for  moisture.  They  concluded  they  couldn't  "make" 
any  thing  there,  according  to  the  doctrine,  "  Ex  nihilo  nihilftt"- 
'*  You  can't  make  something  out  of  nothing."  And  in  well- 
constructed  drains  in  clay  soil,  or  in  any  soil  that  is  not  ''springy," 
this  will,  I  think,  be  the  ordinary  result.  At  all  events,  the 
drains  on  such  soils  do  last  many  years,  with  no  tendency  to 
stoppage  from  roots.  There  is  no  moisture  in  the  drains  to  lure 
the  roots,  except  when  there  is  too  much  moisture  everywhere 
else. 

When  will  roots  obstruct  drains?  I  answer:  When  there  is 
water  or  damp  silt  in  the  drains  and  dry  ness  in  the  soil.  This 
will  occur  in  improperly  constructed  drains,  or  when  there  is 
perennial  water  in  the  drains  from  springs  or  springy  ground 
higher  up  the  slope,  and  dryness  in  the  soil  through  which  the 
drains  pass,  and  on  which  are  gro \ying  crops.  Even  in  ordinarily 
dry  soils,  with  no  running  water  in  the  tiles  in  summer,  if  there 
are  ;'  dips,"  or  depressions,  in  the  drain,  water  will  stand  confined 
for  some  time  after  the  flow  ceases,  and  silt  will  lodge,  and  roots 
will  enter  and  help  make  the  stoppage  complete  and  permanent. 
The  remedy— or,  rather,  preventive— here  is  to  construct  the  drain 
on  a  true  grade,  and  have  no  ''  dips."  In  case  of  perennial  water 
in  the  tiles,  the  remedy  is  not  so  simple.  If  the  soil  through 
which  the  water  flows  becomes  itself  dry,  the  roots  will  surely 
seek  the  water  in  the  tiles.  How  shall  they  be  excluded,  and  yet 
the  water  be  admitted  from  the  adjacent  soil,  as  well  as  from  the 
spring  or  springy  ground  above?  The  only  way  I  know  is  to  use 
soft,  porous  tiles,  exclude  all  that  have  "  pin-holes  "  in  them,  and 
lay  the  joints  in  hydraulic  cement.  The  water  will  enter  the 
pores  of  the  tiles,  but  the  roots  can  not.  If  any  one  doubts  about 
the  water  entering,  let  him  lay  out  a  few  large,  soft-burnt  tiles  in 
a  commencing  shower,  and  see  how  they  swallow  the  big  drops 
as  soon  as  the  latter  fall.  Or  let  him  set  such  a  tile  on  end  in 
piaster  of  Paris,  or  cement,  on  a  board  or  plate;  and  when  the 
cement  or  plaster  is  hardened,  fill  the  tile  full  of  water.  But  it 
must  be  quite  soft- baked  and  porous,  and  such  tiles  are  not  so 
durable,  and  should  never,  I  think,  be  used  except  in  case  of 
such  danger  from  roots.* 

*  NOTE.— Sept.  18,  189J.— This  was  written  in  1880.  I  had  not  then  (I 
may  as  well  confess)  actually  made  the  experiment  of  setting  a  soft-baked 
tile  on  its  (Mid  in  plaster  of  Paris  and  filling- it  with  water,  but  I  took 


110  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

IS   THERE   DANGER   FROM   TREE -ROOTS? 

Yes,  great  danger  under  the  same  conditions  as  in  the  case  of 
cereals.  The  roots  of  aquatic,  or  water-loving  trees,  like  the 
willow  and  some  kinds  or  elm,  seem  to  have  almost  no  limit  to 
their  growth,  either  horizontally  or  vertically  ;  and  they  seem  to 
go  in  search  of  moisture  or  richness  as  if  by  instinct,  and  to  know 
just  where  to  find  it.  I  have  traced  the  roots  of  a  smallish  elm 
some  25  feet  horizontally,  and  6  feet  vertically,  to  their  feeding- 
place  in  a  grave  in  an  old  cemetery;  and  I  have,  in  plowing, 
traced  the  roots  of  a  large  elm  one  hundred  feet  horizontally  by 
measurement.  These  roots  will  enter  even  a  tk pin-hole"  in  tiles, 
if  they  can  find  running  water.  Mr.  H.  B.  Camp,  of  Cuyahoga 
Falls,  O.,  told  me  a  few  days  since  that  he  once  helped  to  take  up 
an  obstracted  drain  whose  joints  were  laid  in  cement,  I  think  he 
said.  At  all  events,  a  willow  root  had  entered  at  a  pin-hol6  not 
larger  than  a  small  darning-needle,  and  spread  into  a  fibrous 
mass  and  packed  the  tile  full  of  roots  for  several  feet  —  the  only 
connection  with  the  upper  world  and  their  lungs  (the  leaves  of 
the  tree)  being  this  small,  threadlike  root  that  entered  at  the 
pin-hole.  It  is  better  to  cut  such  trees  down  when  they  are  near 
a  damp  drain,  and  see  that  they  are  dead.  Prof.  Townshend,  of 
the  Ohio  Agricultural  College,  Columbus,  exhibited  in  one  of  his 
lectures  last  winter  a  dark,  stiff,  fibrous,  spongelike,  solid  cylinder, 
some  three  feet  long  and  three  inches  in  diameter.  When  the 
class  had  doftfe  guessing,  he  gave  its  history.  It  was  the  irillmr- 
root  core  of  his  cellar-drain.  Knowing  the  nature  of  these  roots 
he  cut  the  willow  down  before  he  laid  the  drain,  and  burned  the 
stump  all  he  could  ;  but  in  spite  of  that,  its  roots  stopped  his 
cellar-drain  at  a  depth  of  five  or  six  feet. 

My  experience  and  observation  lead  me  to  these  conclusions  : 

1.  In  ordinary  cases  there  is  no  danger  from  roots;  and  very 
hard-burned  and  even  glazed   tiles  should  be  used,  the  water 
entering  at  the  joints.    Hard  tiles  are  more  durable. 

2.  Where  there  is  danger  from  roots,  as  in  the  cases  described 
above,  soft,  porous  tiles  should  be  used,  with  joints  laid  in  cement. 
They  may  not  last  so  long,  but  they  seem  to  be  the  only  kind  that 
will  admit  water  and  exclude  roots.     [See  the  note  above.] 

3.  Mere  "collars"  without  cement  will  not  exclude  roots  alto- 
gether, and  great  care  must  be  taken  to  use  no  tiles  that  have 
pin-holes  in   them. 

4.  A  uniform  grade  is  important,  or  at  least  there  must  be  no 
"  up  grade  "  between  the  head  and  the  outlet.    It  will  probably 
cause  permanent  stoppage. 

the  word  of  writers  who  claimed  to  have  done  so.  Very  thorough 
experiments  since  made,  and  reported  in  Chapter  VII.  (pages  7^—76 ), 
seemed  to  prove  that  water  will  not  enter  a  drain  made  as  advised  ,  viz., 
with  soft-baked  tiles  and  cemented  joints,  fast  enough  to  amount  to 
any  thing-.  Of  this,  again  at  the  close  of  the  quotation. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  Ill 

5.  All  aquatic  trees  near  the  line  of  the  drain  should  be  killed 
before  the  drain  is  laid.  They  are  a  pest. 

And  I  notice  that  English  writers  on  drainage  have  been  led  by 
similar  experience  and  observation  to  similar  conclusions. 

W.  I.  CHAMBERLAIN. 

On  the  above  I  now  (1891)  remark,  that,  where  water  from 
a  spring  or  springy  place  is  to  be  conveyed  through  soil  that  is 
dry  or  likely  to  be  so  in  summer,  I  would  convey  it  in  hard 
tiles  with  cemented  joints,  and  drain  the  land  locally  in  the 
ordinary  way.  As  to  the  desire  of  roots  to  enter  drains  in 
common  clayey  soil,  I  may  say  that  I  have  lately  dug  down 
to  my  drains  in  an  apple -orchard  set  21  years  ago,  with  trees 
38  feet  apart,  and  whose  roots  long  since  met  and  passed 
each  other,  and  wl lose  branches  have  nearly  met ;  and  the 
drains  are  wholly  free  from  any  obstruction  by  roots. 

But  slop-drains,  bath-room,  water-closet,  and  sink-drains 
from  the  house,  which  are  constantly  damp  and  often  flushed, 
and  which  often  run  past  or  near  evergreens  and  various 
sorts  of  shrubbery  around  the  house,  such  drains  should  be 
of  glazed  sewer-pipe,  socket  joints,  laid  in  water-lime  ce- 
ment, or  the  roots,  especially  ^of  evergreens  and  aquatic 
trees,  will  obstruct  them. 

DRAINAGE   BY  STEAM- PUMPING. 

(1has.  S.  Killmer,  Arenac,  Mich.,  writes  : 

There  are  immense  tracts  of  low-lying  lands  bordering 
inland  lakes  which  I  believe  maybe  reclaimed  by  artificial 
means,  viz  ,  steam-pumps  or  wind-engines.  I  understand 
the  question  has  been  favorably  decided  in  several  instances 
near  Bay  City,  Mich.,  and  would  refer  you  to  the  Wilson 
Hoop  Co.,  West  Bay  City,  Mich.,  for  information.  They 
have,  I  hear,  a  large  tract  of  land  successfully  drained  by 
this  process  It  seems  to  me  that,  in  view  of  records  in  Hol- 
land and  other  countries,  our  leading  men  have  strangely 
neglected  a  very  important  matter ;  and  while  our  thickly 
populated  States  are  breeding  miasma  from  their  countless 
marshes,  our  statesmen  (!)  are  asking  for  millions  to  develop 
the  desert  regions  by  irrigation  for  the  benefit  of  railroad 
corporations. 

I  give  this  suggestive  letter  nearly  entire,  so  that  any  who 


112  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

choose  may  investigate.  It  did  not  seem  to  me  to  lie  quite 
within  the  scope  of  this  little  book  to  investigate  and  devel- 
op the  matter.  Its  scope  is  to  show  advantages  and  meth- 
ods of  drainage  for  clayey  and  swampy  lands  that  have  out- 
lets, without  expensive  pumping.  There  are  many  million 
acres  of  such  land  ;  and  until  much  more  of  this  is  tiled,  and 
land  advances  in  price  more  nearly  to  prices  in  Holland,  it 
does  not  seem  to  me  that  drainage  by  pumping  will  pay  the 
individual  farmer  unless  it  be  in  exceptional  cases.  When 
the  time  comes  that  large  areas  of  such  land  should  be 
drained  it  will  probably  need  to  be  done  by  taxation  placed 
upon  the  land  reclaimed,  and  proportioned  to  benefits  to  the 
land. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

Estimates  :    Sizes  of  Tiles    Required  :     Cost    of 
Draining  if  Done  Economically. 


SIZES  OF   TILK 

I  discussed  this  matter  quite  fully  in  The  Country  Gentle- 
man of  Jan.  9,  1879.  I  have  since  seen  no  reason  to  change 
my  views,  and  therefore  give  that  carefully  prepared  article 
nearly  entire,  with  due  credit  to  that  excellent  paper: 

THE    SIZE    OF    DRAINS. 

About  the  size  of  drains.  I  can  not  agree  with  Engineer  and 
P.  Q.,  either  theoretically  or  practically.  We  can  never  figure  it 
out  from  the  annual  rainfall  and  the  discharging  capacity  of  a 
given-sized  tile  at  a  given  rate,  as,  indeed,  Engineer  intimates. 
But  if  we  try,  we  must  at  least  figure  carefully  on  our  assumed 
data.  For  example,  when  we  are  told  (page  759)  that  a  one-inch 
tile,  discharging  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  per  hour,  will  discharge 
all  the  water  that  falls  on  3(>  acres  of  land,  we  begin  to  figure  as 
requested.  The  rainfall  for  Ohio  and  most  of  New  York  we  find 
to  be  from  32  to  44  inches—  average  38  inches.  In  parts  of  Eastern 
New  York  and  of  New  England  it  is  44  to  56  inches—  average  50. 
[American  Cyclopaedia,  last  edition.]  Take  38  as  the  basis.  This 
gives  about  23%  gallons  to  the  square  foot,  from  which  we  easily 
find  the  number  of  gallons  on  ,,36  acres.  By  use  of  a  formula 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  113 

explained  in  geometry,  and  constantly  used  in  trigonometry  and 
engineering.  \ve  gel  the  area  of  a  cross-section  of  the  inch  tile, 
and  from  this  and  the  rate  of  flow  we  readily  find  the  number  of 
gallons  discharged  each  hour,  which  is  about  862.  Dividing  the 
whole  number  of  gallons  by  this,  and  reducing,  we  find  it  would 
take  over  4  years  and  11  months  to  discharge  the  rainfall  of  one 
year,  even  if  the  tile  works  up  to  full  capacity  steadily  all  the 
time.  And  even  here  the  rate  is  overestimated,  for  none  but  a 
very  heavy  grade  will  give  a  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour  in  an  inch 
tile,  owing  to  the  great  loss  by  friction  in  small  rough  tubes. 

Now,  all  such  calculations  are  utterly  unreliable,  however 
accurately  made,  unless  they  are  based  on  careful  experiment, 
and  take'  into  account  all  the  variations  of  friction  in  tiles  of 
different  caliber  and  inside  smoothness,  and  varying  pressure 
caused  by  different  grades,  etc.  They  mislead  in  both  directions. 
On  the  one  hand  they  assume  that  the  tiles  must  discharge  all 
the  water  that  falls  on  a  field,  whereas  they  discharge  only  the 
surplus  beyond  the  point  of  saturation,  and  sometimes  for  six  or 
eight  months  evaporation  and  absorption  by  the  growth  of 
crops  leave  not  a  drop  to  reach  the  tiles.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
suppose  a  uniform  daily  or  weekly  rainfall,  just  up  to,  and  never 
beyond,  the  capacity  of  the  tiles,  whereas  the  tiles  are  sometimes 
idle,  as  we  have  seen, for  months,  and  sometimes,  on  a  soil  already 
saturated,  comes  a  rainfall  of  six  inches  in  a  single  week,  or  even 
•  three  inches  in  a  single  shower.  Now,  the  tiles  must  convey  all 
this  away  promptly,  or  it  will  wash  and  gully  the  surface-earth, 
or  stand  stagnant  for  days.  We  must  calculate,  then,  for  the 
maximum  ever  required  of  the  tiles.  To  calculate  according  to 
the  annual  rainfall  is  like  calculating  the  annual  traffic  to  be 
borne  up  by  a  bridge,  and  from  that  estimating  how  strong  it 
must  be  each  minute;  whereas  we  know  that,  as  with  the  "  won- 
derful one-hoss  shay,"  so  with  the  bridge,  "the  weakes'  spot 
must  stan'  the  strain."  even  the  heaviest  strain  that  can  ever 
come  upon  it  :  and  the  bridge  must  be  known,  from  formulas  and 
calculations  based  on  experiment,  to  have  as  its  "  factor  of  safety" 
at  least  live  times  the  strength  ever  likely  to  be  required  of  it. 
The  steel  wire  cables  of  the  Brooklyn  bridge  have  a  strength  of 
80  tons  to  the  square  inch  of  section,  and  the  four  main  cables  are 
each  to  be  16  inches  in  diameter,  so  that  the  aggregate  strength 
of  the  main  span  will  be  immensely  beyond  the  combined  force  of 
wind,  storm,  and  burdens  ever  transported. 

These  facts  we  all  know.  Now,  it  is  the  same  way  in  drainage, 
though  the  risks  involved  are  not  so  enormous.  The  main  drain 
or  drains  must  be  up  to  the  greatest  emergency,  or  there  is  risk  of 
partial  or  perhaps  total  failure.  What,  then,  are  the  greatest 
emergencies?  Facts  alone  can  determine.  Take  a  single  one  as 
a  sample.  This  year  (1878)  here,  while  wheat  stood  in  the  shock 
we  had  over  .'i  inches  of  rain  in  24  hours,  on  my  farm.  The  ground 
was  fully  saturated  by  previous  rains,  and  there  was  but  little 
evaporation  for  a  few  days,  and  but  little  absorption  by  growth, 


114  TILE  DEAINAGE. 

as  the  wheat  was  cut.  Therefore  the  drains  had  all  this  water  to 
handle.  Suppose,  now  (by  P.  Q.'s  rule),  we  have  one  four-inch 
drain  as  an  outlet  for  forty  acres  of  laterals.  Take  Engineer's 
rate  of  flow,  viz..  four  miles  per  hour,  though  it  will  require  a 
pretty  heavy  grade  and  full  pressure  to  give  as  high  a  rate.  If  I 
figure  correctly  it  would  take  the  main  nearly  ten  days  to  free  the 
field  simply  of  surface-water;  and  unless  there  was  surface  drain- 
age the  shocks  would  have  to  stand  in  the  water  a  week,  as 
thousands  of  acres  did  on  undrained  land  in  the  Black  Swamp 
region  near  Toledo. 

On  my  own  farm  one  field  (where  there  was  wheat)  happened 
to  have  3  four-inch  mains  to  take  the  water  gathered  by  12  acres 
of  laterals.  The  "  lay  of  the  field  v  required  three  separate  mains, 
and  I  was  determined,  from  previous  experience,  to  have  them 
large  enough,  and  so  used  four-inch  tile  for  the  lower  half  of 
each.  They  are  none  too  large.  Not  less  than  five  times  within 
a  year  they  have  been  crowded  to  their  utmost  capacity,  even 
with  surface  drainage  for  a  short  time.  In  the  case  of  the  big 
rain  mentioned,  they  freed  the  ground  of  surface-water  in  one 
day  —  that  is,  as  fast  as  it  fell,  as  they  should  according  to  the 
above  estimate.  Each  had  four  instead  of  forty  acres  to  drain, 
and  did  it  in  one  day  instead  of  ten.  The  average  grade  of  the 
field  is  three  feet  to  the  hundred. 

The  rule  given  by  the  essayist  at  Hartford  (mentioned  by 
Engineer)  is  based  on  correct  principles  for  a  limited  range  of 
sizes  of  tiles  and  variations  of  grade.  It  is,  in  brief,  uTo  find  how 
many  acres  a  given-sized  main  will  drain,  square  its  diameter." 
Thus,  a  three-inch  main  should  drain  nine  acres;  a  four-inch 
0113  sixteen,  and  so  on.  But  for  our  soil  and  variable  rainfall  I 
am  sure  this  gives  far  too  many  acres.  I  should  say,  for  sixes 
from  three  to  six  inches,  and  grades  less  than  three  feet  to  the 
hundred,  square  the  diameter  and  divide  by  four.  Thus  : 

A  three-inch  main  will  drain  2J4  acres. 
A  four-inch  main  will  drain  4  acres. 
A  five-inch  main  will  drain  6#  acres. 
A  six-inch  main  will  drain  9  acres. 

For  heavier  grades  it  may  do  to  divide  by  three.    Thus  : 
A  three-inch  main  will  drain  3  acres. 
A  four-inch  main  will  drain  o1^  acres. 
A  five-inch  main  will  drain  8^  acres. 
A  six-inch  main  will  drain  12  acres. 

But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that,  the  steeper  the  grade,  the 
greater  the  danger  of  surface  wash,  which  often  causes  great  loss 
of  manure,  and  even  of  soil  itself. 

My  conclusions  in  brief  would  be;  1.  Have  your  mains  large 
enough  —  better  too  large  than  too  small.  Don't  economize  here. 
It  will  be  "saving  at  the  spigot  and  wasting  at  the  bung.-' 

2.  By  "  large  enough  "  I  mean  so  large  as  to  take  the  water  as 
fast  as' the  soil  can  filter  it  and  the  laterals  collect  it. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  115 

3.  Expense  may  be  saved  by  diminishing  the  size  of  the  mains 
toward  their  upper  ends.  For  example,  three-inch  will  dp  till  it, 
has  received  water'  from  two  acres  of  laterals,  then  four-inch  up 
to  four  acres,  then  five-inch/ up  to  six  acres,  and  so  on. 

Since  the  above  was  written  we  have  had  twelve  hours  of 
moderate  rain  which  has  melted  four  inches  of  snow;  total  water, 
over  an  inch.  The  soil  was  saturated  before  ;  surface  not  frozen. 

1  have  been  to  examine  the  main  drains  on  my  own  and  two 
neighboring  farms.    They  are  as  follow 

Two  two-inch  tile  drains  draining-  about  1  acre  each. 
Two  three-inch  tile  drains  draining  about  \%.  acres  each. 
Seven  four-inch  t  ile  drains  draining1  about  4  acres  each. 
Five  four-inch  tile  drains  draining-  about  5%  acres  each. 
One  six-inch  tile  drain  draining-  about  12  acres. 

All  are  worked  up  to  full  capacity.  The  first  three  sets  in  the 
above  table  come  under  the  first  rule  given  above.  They  have  a 
small  surplus  of  water  that  they  can  not  carry.  The  last  two  sets 
come  under  the  second  rule.  They  have  quite  a  large  surplus. 
In  the  case  of  a  few,  surface  wash  comes  on  from  undrained  land 
lying  above.  Due  allowance  is  made  for  this. 

W.  I.  CHAMBERLAIN. 

I  think  our  American  drainage  authorities  recommend 
sizes  far  too  small.  The  latest  of  these  authorities,  C.  G. 
Elliott,  a  civil  and  drainage  engineer  whose  work  has  been 
chiefly  among  the  level  soils  and  large  rainfalls  of  Illinois, 
says :  "  For  drains  not  less  than  three  feet  deep,  and  with 
grades  of  not  less  than  3  inches  to  the  ICO  feet,  —  for  such 
drains  not  more  than  500  feet  long,  a  two-inch  tile  will  drain 

2  acres.     Lines  more  than  500  feet  long  should  not  be  laid  of 
two-inch  tiles." 

Putting  his  rules  in  tabular  form  we  have  : 

A  2-inch  tile  will  drain  2  acres. 
A  3-inch  tile  will  drain  5  acres. 
A  4-inch  tile  will  drain  12  acres. 
A  5-inch  tile  will  drain  20  acres. 
A  6-inch  tile  will  drain  40  acres. 
A  7-inch  tile  will  druin  Ml  acres. 

Waring  says  :  u  In  view  of  all  the  information  that  can  be 
gathered  on  the  subject,  the  following  directions  are  given 
as  perfectly  reliable  for  drains  four  feet  or  more  in  depth, 
laid  on  a  well-regulated  fall  of  even  3  inches  in  100  feet : 


116  TILE  DBAIKAGE 

For     2  acres,  Itf-inch  pipes  (with  collars). 

For     8  acres,  2#-inch  pipes  (with  collars). 

For  20  acres,  3V*-inch  pipes. 

For   40  acres,  two  3*4-iuch  pipes,  or  one  5-inch  sole  tile. 

For   50  acres,  6-inch  pipes  or  sole  tile. 

For  100  acres,  8-inch  pi  pas,  or  two  6-inch  sole  tiles. 

"It  is  not  intended  that  these  drains  will  immediately 
remove  all  the  water  of  the  heaviest  storm,  but  they  will 
always  remove  it  fast  enough  for  practical  purposes." 

I  do  not  think  tfwy  will. 

French  gives  several  pages  of  dense  and  discouraging 
tabulated  figures  showing  the  velocity  in  feet  per  second 
and  discharge  in  gallons  per  24  hours  for  many  sizes  of  tiles 
and  grades  of  fall;  but  he  gives,  so  far  as  I  can  lind,  no 
definite  recommendations.  He  says  :  tk  The  size  of  tiles  is  a 
matter  of  much  importance.  Tiles  should  be  large  enough 
to  carry  off  in  a  reasonable  time  all  the  surplus  water  that 
may  fall  upon  the  land.  Here  the  English  rules  will  not  be 
safe  for  us  ;  for  although  England  has  many  more  rainy  days 
than  we  have,  yet  we  have  more  inches  of  water  from  the 
clouds  in  a  year.  Instead  of  their  eternal  drizzle  we  have 
thunder-showers  in  summer,  and  in  spring  and  autumn  north- 
east storms,  when  the  windows  of  heaven  are  opened,  and  a 
deluge,  except  in  duration,  bursts  upon  us.  Snows  cover  the 
fields  until  April  (in  the  North),  when  they  suddenly  dissolve, 
often  under  heavy  showers  of  rain,  and  planting-time  is  at 
once  upon  us.  It  is  desirable  that  all  the  snow  and  rain 
water  should  pass  through  the  soil  into  the  drains,  instead  of 
overflowing  the  surface,  so  as  to  save  the  elements  of  fertility 
with  which  such  water  abounds,  and  also  to  prevent  the 
washing  of  the  soil.  We  require,  then,  a  greater  capacity  of 
drainage,  and  larger  tiles,  than  do  the  English,  for  our  drains 
must  do  a  greater  work  than  theirs,  and  in  less  time.'" 

And  yet  he  gives  no  tangible  rule  or  opinion  as  to  whai 
sized  mains  are  required  here  for  various  areas. 

Klippart  quotes  French's  tables,  and,  in  substance,  his 
remarks  about  the  English  drizzle,  but  gives  no  definite  or 
tangible  rule  or  formula. 


TILE  DKAINAGE.  117 

From  much  observation  1  am  convinced  that  all  or  nearly 
all  the  authorities  down  to  date  have  advised  too  small  tiles, 
basing  their  judgment  more  upon  English  and  Continental 
practice  than  upon  American  conditions.  The  general  esti- 
mates or  rules  given  in  my  article  quoted  just  above,  from 
The  Omnti-y  Gcntlnn«n,  are  based  upon  much  observation, 
and  tested  by  many  years  of  careful  experience  on  my  own 
farm  ;  and  I  believe  they  are  safe  for  grades  of  less  than  3  ft. 
per  101)  ft  (and,  of  course,  for  greater  grades);  and  for  annual 
rainfall  not  exceeding  o()  inches,  with  occasional  phenomenal 
rainfalls  of  2  or  even  4  inches  in  '24  hours.  The  sizes  there 
given  will  carry  the  water  as  fast  as  the  soil  can  filter  it  into 
the  drains,  if  the  latter  are  30  inches  deep — deep  enough 
for  clay. 

The  tendency  toward  larger  tiles,  especially  in  the  rather 
level  prairie  West,  is  manifest  and  wise.  The  soil  there  is 
more  porous,  and  hence  laterals  may  be  much  further  apart, 
and  wisely  laid  deeper  (even  4  or  4i  ft.  deep)  than  in  our  more 
compact  clayey  soils  in  Ohio, (where  30  inches  is  as  deep  as 
best  economy  will  warrant).  Also,  as  the  grades  there  are 
usually  less,  the  sizes  must  be  larger.  The  manufacture  of  1 
and  H  inch  tiles  has  long  been  discontinued,  even  in  Ohio, 
and  few  2-inch  ones  are  now  made*  in  some  sections,  though 
they  are  laryt  mouyh  for  an  outlet  for  an  acre,  with  good 
grade.  But  in  Illinois,  3  and  4  inch  tiles  are  now  the  smallest 
sizes  found  at  most  tile-kilns.  The  material  is  not  expensive, 
and  the  tendency  toward  larger  sizes  is  wise,  except  where 
freights  or  long  hauling  makes  the  weight  important. 

COST  OF  DRAINAGE  IF  DONE  ECONOMICALLY. 

Ill  a  series  of  articles  in  The  Country  Gmtleman  in  1878  I 
discussed  the  cost,  and  gave  actual  figures  from  a  job  of  15 
acres,  where  much  of  the  work  was  done  with  teams.  The 
ground  was  previously  plowed  so  as  to  leave  a  very  deep 
dead-furrow  just  where  each  lateral  was  to  be.  In  this  a 
four-horse  team  (four  abreast)  plowed  back  and  forth  once 


118  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

with  a  heavy  plow  in  a  pretty  damp  time,  making  a  total 
depth  of  some  15  or  16  inches.  A  single  spade-depth  with  a 
long  spade,  and  a  groove  cut  with  the  bottom  ing-scoop,  fin- 
ished the  digging,  and  most  of  the  tilling  was  done  with  the 
plow  and  team ;  and  in  the  first  plowing  of  the  land  there- 
after the  back  furrows  (as  usual)  were  thrown  into  the 
former  dead-furrows,  and  the  tilling  was  complete,  and  the 
land  leveled  up.  The  conclusion  of  No.  3  of  this  series,  Tlw 
Country  Gentleman,  April  11,  1878.  is  as  follows,  slightly 
condensed : 

Two  men  can  thus  average  fifty  rods  a  day  together  (each 
taking  a  ditch  thus  plowed,  and  digging  one  depth  in  it).  I 
follow  ;  cut  a  true  smooth  groove  about  an  inch  and  a  half  deep, 
with  the  regular  ditchers'  *'  scoop  "  or  groove-cutter;  distribute 
the  tiles  from  the  piles,  lay  them  carefully  />»/  hand,  walking  on 
them  as  I  lay  them,  to  settle  them  firmly;  and  fill  in  the  earth 
thrown  out  by  the  spades,  packing  it  firmly  around  and  above  the 
tiles.  Thus  three  of  us  do  the  entire  handwork  of  fifty  rods  in  a 
day.  The  rest  of  the  clay  and  all  the  soil  is  to  be  filled  in  with 
team  and  plow  after  the  handwork  is  all  done.  Each  night,  or 
whenever  rain  interrupts,  all  the  handwork  should  be  finished  as 
far  as  begun— straw  wads  put  in  the  exposed  ends  of  the  tiles,  and 
the  water  turned  aside  from  the  ditch  above,  if  necessary. 

If  the  field  is  very  stony,  two  men  can  hardly  dig  fifty  rods  this 
one  course,  but  in  most  of  the  fields  of  mine  and  neighboring 
farms  they  can.  I  used  to  dig  the  bottom  course  with  a  very 
narrow  "  bottbming-spade," Just  wide  enough  to  receive  the  tiles. 
But  1  find  that  most  men  win  dig  faster  with  a  six-inch  or  a  four- 
inch  spade,  and  one  can  cut  the  gutter,  or  groove,  better  if  the 
ditch  is  wide  enough  to  walk  in,  and  to  curve  the  groove  slightly 
to  avoid  fixed  stones.  In  case  of  a  very  heavy  stone,  sunk  directly 
in  the  line  of  the  ditch,  I  find  it  better  to  curve  the  whole  ditch 
gradually  a  foot  or  two  right  or  left  than  to  spend  time  to  remove 
or  sink  the  stone.  The  curve  is  easily  made,  as  the  upper  part  of 
the  ditch  is  already  made  so  wide  with  the  team.* 

In  filling  the  rest  of  the  ditch,  the  loose  clay  thrown  out  by  the 
plow  should  first  be  plowed  back,  the  off  horse  walking  in  the 
ditch  to  tramp  it;  then  a  furrow  or  two  of  so;.l  from  each  side,  the 
off  horse  still  walking  directly  over  the  tiles  as  much  of  the  time 
as  possible.  One  day  with  man  and  team  will  do  all  the  team- 
tilling  for  the  field. 

We  have,  then,  the  entire  cost  of  draining  the  fifteen  acres  2^± 
feet  deep,  and  2  rods  apart,  taking  present  prices  of  tile  and  labor 
here : 


*  Such  a  curve  is  shown  in  Fig:.  20,  page  80. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  11<> 

20  ditches,  5H  rods  each      U63  rods  of  2  inch  tile  at  16  cts.  per  rod.*  185.60 

(  27  rods  of  3-inch  tile  at  32  cts.  per  rod 8.64 

*<  27  rods  of  4-inch  tile  at  48  cts.  per  rod 12.96 

f  44  days'  work  of  common  ditchers  at  $1.12J£  per  day 49.50 

22  days' work  of  head  ditcher  at  $1.50  per  day 33.00 

Cost  of  plowing  ditch  with  four-horse  team 7.00 

Cost  of  tilling  with  two-horse  team 3.00 

Cost  of  drawing  tile  from  the  yard  or  car,  one  mile  distant 10.00 

Tse  of  tools 3.00 

Allow  for  hindrances,  interruptions,  and  extra  stony  spots  (time).    10.00 
Total .$322.70 

Dividing-  by  15  we  have  $21  51  as  the  entire  cost  per  acre. 

If  the  field  is  very  uneven,  so  that  the  laterals  can  not  be 
parallel  with  either  of  its  sides,  or  even  with  each  other,  or  so  as 
to  require  deep  digging  in  places,  or  a  greater  number  of  main 
drains  and  junctions,  the  cost  will  be  increased.  Still,  the  plow 
can  be  used  to  great  advantage  even  then  by  simply  turning  out 
one  furrow  or  two  each  way  and  sinking  a  third  as  described, 
wherever  a  drain  is  to  run.  In  this  case  the  four-horse  team 
should  be  used  all  the  time.  I  know  of  no  field  near  here  which 
can  not  be  drained  2%  feet  deep,  2  rods  apart,  for  less  than  $25.00 
per  acre.  Indeed,  most  farmers  could  drain  three  or  four  acres 
each  year  with  almost  no  cash  outlay  except  for  the  tile.  The 
draining  is  at  a  time  of  year  when  little  other  farmwork  can  be 
done  advantageously;  and  I  know  of  few,  if  any,  clay  fields  which 
\vould  not  be  benefited  more  than  that  for  cultivation  and  rota- 
tion of  crops.  If  even  a  part  of  each  farm  is  tile-drained  we  can 
follow  mixed  farming  instead  of  dairying  exclusively;  and  I  know 
whole  townships  on  the  Western  Reserve  which  I  think  are  being 
slowly  impoverished  by  the  latter,  as  at  present  pursued. 

W.  I.  CHAMBERLAIN. 

I  may  add,  that  the  total  average  cost  per  acre  of  all  my 
drainage,  even  where  less  digging  and  filling  than  here 
described  was  done  by  team  and  more  by  hand,  and  where 
prices  of  labor  have  been  higher  than$1.12i  per  day,  has  been 
about  $28.00  per  acre  where  the  laterals  are  2  rods  apart  (33 
feet),  and  about  $lo.OO  to  $16.00  where  the  laterals  are  3  rods 
apart  (49i  feet).  Tiles  are  somewhat  cheaper  now  than  then, 
especially  the  three-inch  and  four-inch  sizes. 

PROPER    DEPTH     FOR    TILES. 

As  already  incidentally  remarked,  I  believe  30  inches  is,  on 
the  whole,  the  best  depth  for  tenacious  and  tough  clayey 
soils.  I  have  some  20  acres  laid  3  feet,  but  I  now  lay  only  30 

*  These  si/es  cost  somewhat  less  now. 


120  TILE  DRAINAGE 

inches,  and  find  that  seems  to  do  just  as  well.  Below  30 
inches  our  clayey  soils,  in  Ohio  at  least,  are  very  hard  to  dig, 
and  very  slow  to  filter  the  water.  In  the  deep  black  porous  soils 
of  Iowa,  with  deep  freezing,  4  feet  is  none  too  dee])  for  later- 
als, and  4i  for  mains,  and  4  or  5  rods  apart  will  do. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

Conclusion. 

The  little  book  is  done.  It  has  been  lovingly  and  enthusi- 
astically written.  I  believe  in  drainage,  especially  for  the 
rather  flat  and  slightly  rolling  but  very  cold,  tenacious,  and 
naturally  rather  irresponsive  and  unproductive  clayey  lands 
of  ^Northern  Ohio  and  other  sections  like  it.  I  believe  that 
tiling  properly,  and  then  tilling  properly,  with  manures,  fer- 
tilizers, clover,  and  rotation,  will  make  of  such  soils  a  very 
garden  for  fertility,  excellent  for  wheat,  oats,  clover,  corn, 
and  even  potatoes.  I  should  like  to  persuade  my  brother- 
farmers  to  take  the  road  that  has  helped  me  pay  my  debts 
and  reach  a  far  better  net  income  from  the  farm.  I  know 
that  I  have  written  rather  as  an  advocate  than  as  a  judge ;  but 
I  have  tried  to  write  with  truthfulness  and  fairness.  I  have 
no  personal  pecuniary  interest  in  leading  a  single  man  to  lay 
a  single  tile,  or  to  plow  more,  or  to  use  more  manures,  fertil- 
izers, or  clover.  I  am  not  financially  interested  in  any  way 
nor  in  any  degree  in  the  manufacture  or  sale  of  tiles,  clover 
seed,  or  tillage  implements;  but  I  am  greatly  interested  in 
the  great  problem  of  making  our  clayey  farms  more  produc- 
tive, and  their  owners  more  prosperous.  The  sandy  loams, 
the  limestone  soils,  the  black  soils,  all  reward  the  labors  of 
the  farmer  more  abundantly  at  first.  It  takes  more  skill  to 
make  a  good  living  out  of  the  clayey  soils,  hitherto  given  over 
almost  exclusively  to  grazing  and  meadows.  Tile  drainage  I 
believe  to  be  the  basis  of  successful  tillage  on  such  soils. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  121 

PERSONAL     LETTERS    OF    ADVICE. 

Do  not  ask  them.  I  am  a  pretty  good-natured  man, but  an 
extremely  busy  one.  I  presume  most  farmers  have  little 
idea  how  heavy  a  mail  such  writers  as  Mr.  Terry,  Mr.  Gould, 
Mr.  Brown,  and  myself,  have.  I  find  that"  I  can  answer 
personal  letters  from  strangers  only  with  great  brevity,  and 
only  when  a  postal  card  or  prepaid  envelope,  or  stamp,  at 
least,  is  inclosed  for  reply.  If  the  letters  are  of  general 
interest  I  can  reply  through  The  Ohio  Farmer,  if  so  request- 
ed. But  as  to  questions  of  drainage,  I  have  tried  in  this 
little  book  to  tell  all  I  know  that  is  necessary  for  you  to  know 
about  its  principles  and  practice.  If  I  have  failed  in  the  six 
weeks  or  so  of  hard  work  put  upon  it,  for  liberal  pay  from 
the  publisher,  I  shall  surely  fail  in  the  few  moments  I  can 
afford  to  donate  to  you  on  a  postal-card  reply.  If  you  have  a 
really  difficult  problem  of  drainage,  employ  a  competent 
engineer,  or  at  least  an  experienced  ditcher,  a  real  expert  at 
the  work.  I  could  not  advise  wisely  except  by  seeing  the 
land. 

WHERE    TO    HrV    TILES. 

In  particular,  do  not  ask  me  this.  I  can  not  tell  you,  in 
your  locality.  Consult  the  advertisements  in  your  best  agri- 
cultural and  local  papers ;  ask  your  local  freight  agent,  and 
write  to  manufacturers  for  carload  rates  delivered  at  your 
station,  if  they  are  not  made  near  enough  to  haul  with  teams. 
Use  your  eyes  and  pen  and  the  mails,  or  even  advertise  in 
your  agricultural  paper,  something  like  this : 

WANTED. — Carload  rates  on  tile,  delivered  at Station, 

(m  the Railroad. 

Then  club  with  a  few  neighbors,  if  you  do  not  want  a  car- 
load yourself.  Begin  and  tile  a  few  acres  near  the  barn,  and 
then  till  it  u  as  well  as  you  know  how  or  can  learn  how; "  and 
as  your  income  increases  from  that  investment,  use  the 
surplus  funds  in  draining  a  littl  more  each  year,  thoroughly, 


122  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

and  economically,  at  the  times  when  other  farm  work  is  least 
pressing. 

As  promised  in  the  introduction,!  have  not  given  here  any 
of  what  I  may  call  the  ancient  history  of  drainage,  curious 
and  interesting  as  is  the  evolution  of  any  science  or  art,  but 
of  little  use  now  to  the  average  farmer,  who  wants  most  to 
know  the  best  present  methods,  implements,  and  materials, 
and  the  reasons  why  they  are  best.  1  have  also  avoided  the 
discussion  of  curious  but  really  useless  side  issues  and  ques- 
tions. But  1  have  tried  hard  to  touch  all  points  that  are  of 
real  importance  to  those  who  wish  to  tile-drain  portions  of 
their  farms,  and  do  it  economically  and  well. 

TABLE    OF    CONTENTS,    AND    INDEX. 

If  you  wish  to  learn  systematically  the  scope  of  the  book  in 
a  few  moments,  study  the  table  of  contents  and  the  introduc- 
tion. If  you  wish  to  find  just  where  any  particular  subject  is 
discussed,  look  for  it  in  the  alphabetical  index.  It  has  been 
prepared  with  care. 

TESTING     15 V    TRIAL. 

If  you  wish  to  learn  whether  the  advice  given  in  this  little 
book  is  sound,  test  it  carefully  and  thoroughly  on  such  parts 
of  your  farm  as  seem  to  need  tile  drainage. 

THE    END. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  123 


APPENDIX  BY  A.   I.   ROOT. 

As  early  as  I  can  remember  I  had  a  particular  liking  for 
water  and  every  thing  pertaining  to  it.  My  early  home  was 
on  one  of  the  hills  in  Mogadore,  Summit  Co.,  O.;  and  at  the 
base  of  these  hills,  beautiful  soft-water  springs  broke  forth  in 
abundance  ;  therefore  my  childhood  plays  were  largely  con- 
nected with  building  dams,  constructing  little  water-wheels, 
carrying  water  along  the  sides  of  the  bank  in  little  races, 
ditches,  etc.  And  during  the  forty  or  more  years  that  have 
passed,  running  water  has  had  a  special  fascination  for  me. 
Perhaps  this  may  account  for  the  fact  of  my  having  had  so 
much  to  say  about  springs,  artesian  wells,  irrigating  plants, 
etc.,  during  my  travels.  The  problem  of  getting  water  where 
we  want  it,  and  when  we  want  it,  and  getting  rid  of  it  when 
we  don't  want  it,  has  been  a  most  interesting  one  to  me.  Al- 
most the  first  useful  work  I  did  in  my  childhood  was  to  make 
garden  ;  and  with  my  good  mother  for  a  teacher,  it  is  not  sttrange 
that,  in  later  life,  I  turn  again  and  again  to  the  garden  for 
both  relaxation  and  enjoyment.  One  of  the  first  problems  in 
gardening  was  to  get  rid  of  the  water  we  did  not  want;  and, 
later  on,  another  problem  has  been  a  fond  one-  the  getting 
of  water  for  irrigation  when  we  do  want  it.  This  latter, 
however,  will  hardly  come  within  the  scope  of  the  present 
work.  The  former  is,  however,  just  what  we  do  want.  Just 
as  soon  as  spring  opens  we  want  to  get  rid  of  the  surplus 
moisture ;  and  even  to  this  day  there  are  few  things  1  enjoy 
more  than  making  little  open  ditches  to  let  the  sin-plus  water 
run  off.  It  is  the  first  work  I  do  in  the  spring,  whenever 


124  TILE  DRAINAGE 

there  happens  to  be  more  water  on  the  ground  than  the 
drains  will  take  away  ;  for  in  our  locality  at  Medina,  O.,  the 
first  obstacle  to  spring  work  is  to  get  rid  of  the  surplus 
wetness. 

In  riding  over  the  country,  whenever  I  see  water  standing 
in  cat-swamps  or  sink-holes,  doing  nobody  any  good,  and 
damaging  the  crop,  or  the  chances  of  a  crop,  I  feel  a  strong- 
impulse  to  let  the  water  oft'.  If  the  owners  of  such  places 
enjoyed  the  work  as  I  do,  I  verily  believe  they  would  sit  up 
nights  to  drain  off  these  eyesores  on  the  land,  if  they  could 
not  manage  it  otherwise.  How  I  do  like  to  see  the  water 
run  away,  like  a  liberated  bird  !  and  then  to  witness  the 
dismay  of  the  frogs,  turtles,  and  other  denizens  of  such 
places,  is  worth  almost  as  much,  if  not  quite,  as  to  see  the 
wonderful  crops  which  always  reward  such  labor.  A  swamp, 
a  low  wet  place,  or  a  springy  place,  is  always  a  delight  to  me. 
If  the  springy  place  furnishes  water  the  year  round,  then  it 
is  indeed  a  little  gold-mine— at  least,  if  the  water  in  these 
springs  can  be  carried  somewhere  so  as  to  make  a  nice  water- 
ing-trough for  thirsty  horses  and  cattle,  to  say  nothing  of 
thirsty  mankind. 

UTILIZING   SPRINGY  PLACES. 

Some  time  ago  I  visited  a  friend  of  mine  who  was  trying  to ' 
raise  celery.  It  was  suffering  from  drouth.  Not  many  rods 
away  was  some  beautiful  rich  muck ;  but  he  could  not  do 
any  thing  with  it  because  it  was  too  wtt.  In  fact,  a  stream  of 
water  was  even  then  running  away  from  the  place.  In  a 
very  few  minutes  I  had  followed  the  water  to  a  point  where 
it  evidently  had  its  source  in  a  clump  of  rank  weeds  and 
bushes  ;  and  in  a  little  time  we  traced  it  to  a  place  that  was 
even  higher  than  his  suffering  celery.  With  only  a  few 
hours'  work  his  wet  place  could  have  been  thoroughly  drain- 
ed, and  the  water  from  the  spring  carried  to  where  his  grow- 
ing celery  needed  it ;  for  the  spring  was  a  little  higher  than 
any  part  of  the  garden.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  I  could  say, 


TILE  DRAINAGE  12o 

I  rather  think  he  never  utilized  the  spring,  or  the  ground 
that  it  was  spoiling  by  making  it  too  wet.  I  have  met  quite 
a  number  of  cases  quite  similar. 

MAKIXU   CROOKED    WATER-COU  USES   STRAIGHT. 

All  over  our  land  we  find  streams  of  greater  or  less  size 
running  through  fields  cultivated  and  uncultivated.  The 
natural  course  of  these  streams  is  zigzag  here  and  there. 
And  that  is  not  all.  The  greater  part  of  them  are  constantly 
changing  their  course.  Each  freshet  starts  a  new  channel. 
The  consequence  is,  a  large  part  of  the  field,  especially  when 
under  cultivation,  is  wasted.  On  page  14,  Fig.  5,  friend 
Chamberlain  graphically  describes  this  state  of  affairs.  See, 
also,  page  62.  Such  a  place  was  on  our  own  ground  when  I 
first  settled  here  ten  or  twelve  years  ago.  When  I  spoke  of 
using  the  low  ground  for  a  market-garden,  everybody  laugh- 
ed at  me.  The  first  thing  I  did  was  to  cut  a  straight  chan- 
nel for  Champion  Brook.  We  started  where  it  came  on  my 
land,  and  'carried  it  almost  in  a  straight  line  to  a  point 
where  it  left  my  land.  To  do  this  I  was  obliged  to  cut 
through  a  bank  in  one  place  six  or  eight  feet  deep.  I  soon 
found  I  had  made  a  mistake  in  thinking  that  I  must  cut  my 
ditch  wide  enough  for  the  creek  in  time  of  high  water.  Had 
I  cut  a  shallow  ditch  and  waited  a  little,  the  water  would 
have  widened  it  very  quickly,  much  cheaper  than  it  was  done 
with  horses,  plow,  and  scraper.  Of  course,  at  every  very  big 
freshet  I  was  annoyed  by  seeing  the  water  break  over  my 
embankment  and  take  its  old  course.  It  was  a  good  deal 
like  bad  habits ;  with  every  fierce  temptation,  resolutions 
are  very  apt  to  be  swept  away,  and  the  water  of  passion 
comes  deeper  than  it  did  before.  Pretty  soon  it  began  to  be 
a  sort  of  standing  joke,  the  fight  I  was  having  with  Cham- 
pion Brook ;  and  most  people  thought  for  a  while  that  I 
would  give  way  and  do  as  they  did — let  the  brook  go  where 
it  wanted  to.  But  I  didn't.  I  do  not  like  to  fight  or  quarrel 
with  my  neighbors ;  but  I  do  really  enjoy  a  tussle  with  the 


126    '  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

elements  of  mttuw .  I  enjoy  coming  out  ahead  too.  Where 
the  water  persisted  in  breaking  over  into  the  old  channel,  I 
covered  the  embankment  with  tin  scraps  from  the  tinshop. 
These  were  tramped  into  the  clay  and  gravel.  In  fact,  I 
first  made  a  horse-path  right  along  the  bank,  and  then  a 
wagon-road  ;  and  with  the  aid  of  the  tin,  the  dam  has  become 
so  solid  and  compact,  that,  even  if  the  water  goes  over  it  in 
a  very  high  freshet,  it  does  not  move  it  away.  At  the  same 
time,  I  kept  cleaning  out  the  straight  channel  a  little  deeper. 
It  is  now  wide  enough  so  we  can  take  the  big  team  and  a 
good  plow  and  plow  furrows  the  whole  length  in  the  center 
of  the  channel  up  and  down,  during  the  first  dry  time  in  the 
spring.  Then  men  come  along  with  shovels  and  throw  the 
dirt  upon  the  bank,  or  carry  it  where  it  is  needed  to  strength- 
en the  sides  of  the  ditch.  But  after  this,  another  trouble 
came  in.  The  water,  during  each  freshet,  persisted  in  cut- 
ting the  ditch  a  little  wider,  and  it  was  encroaching  upon 
my  valuable  creek-bottom  land.  To  stop  this  encroachment 
I  bought  cedar  posts  and  set  them  on  each  side  of  the  creek, 
in  a  line  six  feet  apart.  The  posts  were  slanted  back  toward 
the  bank  so  that  the  pressure  of  the  earth  outside  of  them 
should  not  be  too  great.  Then  the  tops  were  secured  by  a 
heavy  piece  of  galvanized  wire  put  around  each  post  near 
the  top,  the  other  end  being  made  fast  to  a  stone  imbed- 
ded in  the  embankment.  This  was  to  hold  my  fence  bar- 
ricade from  being  crowded  over  into  the  stream,  and  also 
to  keep  the  j  osts  in  place,  should  a  heavy  washout  occur 
during  a  time  of  freshet.  The  posts  were  cut  off  in  a  line 
where  I  wished  the  top  of  the  bank  to  come,  and  the  pieces  cut 
off  were  long  enough  to  set  in  again,  so  each  post  made  two. 
Hemlock  boards  were  nailed  securely  to  the  posts, and  a 2  x  4 
cap  put  on  top.  Then  the  dirt  was  banked  back  of  it.  The 
wagon-road  for  gathering  our  crops  was  close  up  to  this  fence 
or  barricade.  This  work  was  done  last  spring.  It  has  en- 
dured some  very  heavy  freshets,  and  yet  stands  now  as 
sound  and  solid  as  when  it  was  put  in.  Did  it  pay  ?  Well, 


TILE  DKAINAGE.  127 

you  should  come  down  to  my  creek-bottom  ground  when  we 
are  gathering  crops,  and  see  the  wonderful  growth  that  we 
have  right  in  these  very  low  places,  where  the  frogs  and 
toads  ten  years  ago  used  to  hold  kt  high  carnival  "  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  season.  Underneath  the  rich  black  earth 
of  the  surface  is  a  porous,  gravelly  subsoil,  such  as  is  usually 
found,  I  believe,  on  such  creek  bottoms.  With  the  aid  of 
the  deep  ditch  I  have  described,  no  underdraining  is  required 
on  this  ground  for  a  good  many  rods  back  ;  and  the  growth 
of  all  kinds  of  fruits  and  vegetables  here  is  perfectly  wonder- 
ful. When  I  first  began  to  plow  up  a  certain  portion  of  this 
creek  bottom,  one  of  my  best  men  tied  his  horses  to  a  tree 
and  came  back  and  told  me  he  didn't  believe  I  could  ever 
make  any  sort  of  garden  in  that  ground.  But  I  told  him  to 
go  ahead.  But  he  again  declared  that  I  never  could  get 
crops  from  the  ground  to  pay  the  expense  of  digging  out  the 
stones  and  roots,  and  getting  it  ready  for  plowing.  I  bade 
him  go  back  and  stick  to  his  job.  The  first  crop  on  that 
ground  was  onions,  and  it  paid  big.  After  onions  we  put  on 
the  celery,  and  we  have  had  celery,  early  or  late,  on  the 
ground  almost  ever  since.  A  year  or  two  ago,  just  for  ex- 
periment I  secured  three  paying  crops  on  this  very  piece  of 
ground.  First,  we  picked  a  tremendous  crop  of  Sharpless 
strawberries.  When  the  last  berry  was  picked  the  straw- 
berries were  turned  under,  and  a  crop  of  radishes  was  put 
on  the  ground.  They  grew  so  quickly  that  we  commenced 
selling  them  on  the  wagon  just  thirty  days  after  the  seed  was 
sown.  Then  we  put  turnips  between  the  radishes,  and  had 
an  enormous  crop  of  turnips.  And  so  it  has  been  ever  since. 
This  ground  is  cropped  incessantly,  from  the  time  the  frost 
leaves  it  until  it  freezes  up  again.  This  can  scarcely  be 
called  an  open  ditch;  for  at  some  seasons  of  the  year  it  car- 
ries a  swift  stream  perhaps  three  feet  deep  and  six  feet  wide. 

SURFACE  DRAINING. 

Friend  Chamberlain  has  had  but  little  to  say  in  regard  to 


128  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

this.  In  fact,  he  rather  takes  the  ground  that,  where  the 
land  is  properly  *mcfcrdrained,  no  arrangements  need  be 
made  for  surface  drainage.  I  have  not  found  this  to  be  the 
case  in  market-gardening.  As  I  look  out  of  the  window 
while  I  write,  I  see  about  two  acres  of  ground  on  a  gentle 
side  hill.  To  prevent  washes,  I  put  in  lines  of  tile  only  20 
feet  apart.  This  usually  takes  away  all  surplus  water  about 
as  fast  as  it  falls.  With  the  heavy  rains  we  have  here  in  this 
part  of  Ohio,  my  crops  are  often  injured  by  being  washed 
out,  notwithstanding  this  drainage.  Of  course,  the  tiles  run 
straight  up  and  down  hill,  or  as  near  it  as  may  be  ;  but  dur- 
ing very  heavy  rains  something  in  the  way  of  surface  drain- 
age seems  to  be  still  needed.  At  one  time  last  summer  I 
stood  watching  the  ground  from  this  very  window.  For  an 
hour  or  more  the  tiles  seemed  to  carry  all  the  water,  even 
though  it  rained  in  torrents.  At  last  I  could  see  by  the 
looks  of  the  ground  that  it  was  fast  reaching  the  point  of 
saturation.  Then  it  began  to  burst  through  the  furrows 
here  and  there,  and  my  nice,  fine,  heavily  manured  soil  be- 
gan to  rush  down  into  the  ditch  by  the  roadside.  I  had  be- 
fore taken  the  precaution  to  have  the  furrows  run  across  the 
hill  instead  of  up  and  down,  having  previously  tried  the  fur- 
rows running  up  and  down  several  seasons.  In  the  middle 
of  the  lot  is  a  roadway.  This  roadway  has  been  sunk  down 
to  about  the  depth  the  plow  goes— that  is,  the  good  soil  has 
been  removed  from  the  road,  and  taken  to  fill  up  hollows  or 
depressions.  Well,  a  small  millrace  of  water  went  down 
this  roadway,  and  that  saved  the  land  for  two  or  three  rods 
on  each  side ;  but  it  seemed  to  me  during  that  heavy  rain, 
that  a  roadway,  say  once  in  six  or  eight  rods,  would  have 
been  an  excellent  investment.  Then  if  the  ground  were 
plowed  so  as  to  make  it  a  little  the  highest  between  the  road- 
ways, so  the  furrows  would  slant  from  the  center  each  way 
to  the  roadway,  we  should  have  it.  When  I  visited  J.  W. 
Smith,  of  Green  Bay,  Wis.,  I  found  he  had  adopted  just  this 
plan.  His  roadways  were  each  right  over  an  underdrain 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  129 

The  land  was  thrown  up  into  beds  between  roadways,  be- 
ing a  little  the  highest  in  the  center.  These  roadways  were 
used  for  paths  for  walking,  or  for  running  wheelbarrows  or 
running  a  light  wagon  to  gather  crops  and  distribute  manure. 
Where  the  roadways  crossed,  compost-heaps  were  made, 
where  all  useless  vines  and  weeds,  trash  and  rubbish,  were 
stored  and  composted.  This  enabled  him,  in  plowing,  to 
clear  every  thing  out  of  the  way  of  the  team.  Now,  during 
these  excessively  heavy  rains,  the  water  stood  in  the  roadways 
instead  of  on  the  crops.  I  hardly  need  tell  you  that  Mr. 
Smith  stands  perhaps  almost  at  the  head  of  market-gardeners 
in  the  United  States.  I  have  visited  most  of  the  great  gar- 
deners, and  I  have  never  seen  any  thing  like  Mr.  Smith's 
forty  acres. 

FILLING  UP  DEPRESSIONS,  ETC. 

You  will  notice,  from  the  above,  that  I  recommend  having 
ground  gradually  brought  into  such  shape  that  there  will  be 
no  depressions  where  water  may  stand  for  even  an  hour. 
Friend  Terry,  in  the  strawberry  -  book,  urges  this  quite 
strongly';  and  so  thoroughly  have  I  become  convinced  of  the 
importance  of  it  that  we  had  men  go  over  the  ground  with 
shovels  just  before  the  last  plowing,  and  take  the  soft  earth 
from  the  higher  portions  and  throw  it  into  the  depressions. 
This  was  particularly  needed  in  my  creek-bottom  land,  where 
the  water,  by  its  many  years  of  coursing  this  way  and  that, 
had  made  little  hillocks,  and  depressions  to  match,  in  various 
places  throughout  the  ground.  I  noticed  that,  where  water 
stood  for  only  a  few  hours  on  certain  crops,  it  seemed  to 
harm  them  ;  and  by  filling  these  depressions,  and  making 
the  general  lay  of  the  land  so  the  water  would  run  off  in 
some  direction,  I  avoided  having  wet  places  in  certain  rows. 
You  may  object  that  this  is  a  great  deal  of  trouble ;  but, 
please  remember  that,  if  the  land  is  once  got  into  proper 
shape,  it  is  so  for  ever  ;  and  the  sight  of  a  field  with  no  de- 
pressions where  water  can  stand  and  make  certain  spots  in 


130  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

the  crop  yellow  and  sickly,  is  worth  a  good  deal  to  me,  and 
it  is  worth  a  great  deal  to  the  crop  also. 

AVOIDING  GULLETS  AND  WASHOUTS. 

A  few  weeks  ago  I  visited  Mr.  J.  W.  Day,  the  great  toma- 
to-grower of  Mississippi.  He  has  400  acres  in  peach-trees, 
and  is  rapidly  fitting  his  grounds  for  more.  All  over  the 
South  they  have  terrible  times  with  washouts  on  the  hill- 
sides. This  is  especially  the  case  where  they  have  the  red 
lands  of  the  Southern  States.  Since  the  forests  have  been 
cut  away,  and  the  grass  turned  under,  many  fields  have  been 
so  cut  and  gullied  they  are  next  to  useless.  Some  of  the 
farmers  are  making  a  feeble  attempt  to  fill  them  up  with 
straw  and  brush,  thinking  thus  to  stop  the  wash,  and  divert 
the  water  into  the  proper  roadways  or  channels ;  but  it  is  a 
hard  thing  to  stop  when  once  started.  About  as  soon  as  I 
looked  upon  friend  Day's  gardening  and  fruit-growing  I  saw 
he  was  running  furrows  around  the  hills,  instead  of  up  and 
down  or  crosswise.  He  had  adopted  the  slope  of,  I  think, 
one  foot  in  twenty.  This  carries  the  water  to  the  nearest 
open  ditch,  and  prevents  it  from  going  straight  down  hill 
with  a  rush.  If  the  descent  is  much  faster  than  one  foot  in 
twenty,  it  might  cut  and  guile y  again ;  and  if  more  nearly 
level,  it  might  break  across  the  furrows.  Of  course,  open 
ditches  must  be  provided,  or  some  equivalent,  after  the 
water  has  been  carried  about  so  far.  It  is  somewhat  com- 
plicated and  troublesome,  I  know,  to  run  these  ditches 
around  the  hill.  But  I  am  sure  he  makes  it  pay.  His  rows 
of  fruit-trees  run  around  the  hills  in  the  same  way ;  and  in 
plowing  and  cultivating,  no  furrows  are  made  that  may  sug- 
gest to  the  water  (if  you  will  pardon  the  expression)  the  idea 
of  cutting  across  and  going  straight  down  hill.  This  plan  is 
a  sort  of  terracing,  only  the  terraces  are  run  on  such  a  slant 
as  to  carry  the  water.  As  this  land  is  mostly  a  gravelly  sub- 
soil, no  underdraining  has  yet  been  done. 

Where  underdraining  is  done  on  lowlands,  in  order  to  keep 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  131 

them  free  from  silt  and  mud  I  have  constructed  silt-basins. 
Now,  these  silt-basins  are  a  bad  thing  to  plow  around,  and 
they  are  a  bad  thing  to  plow  over ;  therefore  we  cover  them 
with  a  flat  stone,  having  this  stone  down  so  low  that  the 
plow  will  not  reach  it.  The  silt-basin  is  made  of  a  piece  of 
large  tile.  The  underdrain  runs  in  at  one  side  and  out  at 
the  other.  As  often  as  they  become  filled  with  mud  or  silt 
'  they  must  be  cleaned  out.  So  far,  so  good ;  but  if  you  plow 
and  cultivate  right  over  them,  how  in  the  world  are  you  go- 
ing to  find  them  out  ?  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  we  have 
some  three  or  four  that  we  can  not  find,  or  have  not  found, 
for  several  years.  Hereafter  I  am  going  to  have  some  land- 
marks indicating  their  locality,  and  have  it  put  down  in  a 
book.  There  is  on  our  land  one  place  where  it  is  under- 
drained,  that  has  been  once  taken  up  and  found  completely 
filled  with  mud.  This  was  on  our  creek-bottom  ground. 

"  WET   WEATHER  "   STREAMS. 

What  shall  we  do  with  streams  that  exist  only  in  winter 
time,  or  during  exceedingly  wet  weather,  and  disappear  as 
soon  as  the  ground  dries  off  ?  This  is  quite  a  problem  here 
in  Medina  Co..  O.  One  such  low  place  is  on  one  corner  of 
our  grounds.  The  water  goes  on  to  our  ground  from  a  sluice- 
way under  a  public  highway.  When  I  first  came  on  the 
place  I  put  in  it  four-inch  tile,  thinking  it  would  enable  me 
to  plow  and  raise  crops  over  it.  As  it  did  not  answer  I  put 
in  six-inch  tile.  This  did  tolerably  well  for  three  or  four 
years.  Finally  we  had  a  very  wet  season,  and  my  raspber- 
ries, strawberries,  etc.,  were  washed  out  so  repeatedly  that  I 
became  disgusted.  A  year  ago  I  bought  enough  twelve-inch 
tile  to  go  clear  through  where  the  stream  crosses  my  land. 
So  far  it  has  carried  all  the  water,  and  my  crops  over  it  are 
uninjured.  As  it  is  some  of  my  very  best  land,  I  feel  sure 
that  I  shall  in  time  get  back  the  money  I  paid  for  the  twelve- 
inch  tile.  In  such  a  place  it  is  quite  important  that  trash  be 
kept  from  filling  up  these  large  tile.  At  present  we  made  a 


132  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

large  silt-basin  at  the  side  of  the  road  where  the  water  comes 
from  the  culvert,  or  bridge,  and  goes  into  the  tile,  by  placing 
under  the  inlet  to  the  tile  a  hogshead,  or  very  large  barrel. 
All  the  trash  that  comes  through  under  the  bridge  goes  down 
into  this  hogshead  ;  and  when  it  is  full  we  clean  it  out. 
Floating  stuff  is  kept  out  by  means  of  a  piece  of  heavy  poul- 
try-netting. 

SANITARY  TILING. 

Much  is  being  said  of  late  about  fevers  being  caused  by 
impure  drinking-water.  In  view  of  this  it  behooves  every 
one  of  us  to  save  the  money  we  pay  to  doctors  (so  far  as  we 
can)  and  expend  it  in  buying  and  laying  tiles.  If  you  can  not 
do  any  more  underdraining,  be  sure  you  have  plenty  of  tiles 
all  around  your  house,  your  well,  and  your  cistern.  Then 
watch  the  outlets.  Guard  them  as  you  would  guard  your 
reputation.  Last  summer,  more  than  $100  was  paid  out  for 
doctors  and  medicine  because  of  one  spell  of  malarial  fever ; 
and  I  have  decided  to  invest  some  more  money  in  tiles  in  a 
way  that  I  hope  may  avert  similar  attacks  in  our  family.  A 
few  days  ago  I  met  a  poor  man  who  said  his  doctor-lull  was 
$280,  and  he  was  in  very  poor  health  at  the  time.  He  lives 
in  California,  where  doctors  are  expensive,  especially  as  he 
lives  several  miles  from  the  town  where  the  doctor  is.  I 
could  not  help  wondering  whether  he  would  not  have  been 
almost  as  well  if  he  had  not  been  doctored  quite  so  much.  Of 
course,  we  do  not  know  about  these  things ;  but  this  we  do 
know :  Where  drain  tile  will  save  the  necessity  of  the  doc- 
tor's visits,  it  is  wiser  and  better  to  spend  the  money  in  buy- 
ing drain  tile  and  cutting  ditches. 

HYDRAULIC  ENGINEERS,  ETC. 

In  regard  to  employing  a  competent  engineer  to  lay  out 
your  ground,  as  a  general  thing  I  believe  the  man  who  owns 
the  ground  can  do  his  own  engineering.  Friend  Terry's  plan 
is,  to  pour  some  water  in  the  ditch  and  see  whether  the  wa- 
ter will  run.  If  it  does  not  run  to  suit  you,  go  at  it  again, 


TILE  DKAINAGE  133 

and  then  pour  in  some  more  water.  Do  not  lay  a  tile  until 
the  water  runs  to  suit  you.  I  believe  friend  Terry  speaks  of 
drawing  water  to  the  field  in  barrels  when  it  happens  there 
is  none  ready  to  test  the  drain  with.  While  I  write  I  am 
looking  at  a  spot  out  of  the  window  where  our  drains  have 
never  worked  quite  satisfactorily.  I  told  the  men  who  were 
digging  the  ditch  not  to  lay  any  tiles  until  I  got  around. 
Well,  the  work  in  the  office  was  quite  urgent  at  the  time,  and 
I  did  not  get  around  as  soon  as  I  expected  to.  They  were  so 
sure  they  were  doing  it  right,  they  put  in  the  tiles  and  cover- 
ed them  up.  I  scolded,  and  talked  about  digging  them  out 
again.  But  I  let  it  go ;  and  we  have  had  a  wet  place  there 
long  after  the  rest  of  the  field  is  dry.  This  has  happened  at 
every  heavy  rain  since  the  ditch  was  made. 

This  brings  us  to  the  matter  of  poor  help.  The  idea  that 
"  any  fool  can  dig  "  is  a  big  blunder.  Friend  Chamberlain  is 
exactly  right  about  it.  There  are  only  a  few  people  among 
my  acquaintances  who  can  dig  well  with  profit.  I  remember 
once  upon  a  time  a  "  tramp  "  came  along  and  wanted  a 
breakfast.  I  gave  him  his  breakfast  first,  and  he  was  to  dig 
until  we  were  satisfied  he  had  paid  for  it.  Well,  my  impres- 
sion is  that  his  breakfast  would  not  have  been  paid  for  at 
the  present  time,  had  we  kept  him  still  digging.  He  could 
not  do  any  thing  about  the  ditch  without  making  more  trou- 
ble than  he  was  worth.  Strength  is  a  grand  thing  in  digging 
ditches ;  but  without  brains  it  amounts  to  little.  In  the  first 
place,  you  want  a  man  who  is  willing  to  be  taught.  For  sev- 
eral years  I  had  in  my  employ  an  old  Englishman.  He  was 
a  splendid  man  for  most  kinds  of  work ;  but  when  laying 
tiles  he  would  insist  on  having  the  bottom  wide  enough  so  he 
could  shovel  the  dirt  out  with  a  common  barn  shovel.  Then 
he  would  trim  down  the  sides  until  they  were  smooth  and 
true.  His  ditch  was  very  handsome,  and  would  have  been 
just  the  thing  if  he  were  going  to  lay  tiles  a  foot  square. 
But  it  is  a  great  blunder  to  dig  such  a  big  trench  for  round 
tiles  only  2i  or  3  inches  in  diameter.  I  had  to  give  him  up. 


134  TILE  DRAINAGE 

He  would  not  dig  as  I  wanted  him  to,  but  insisted  that  it  was 
cheaper  to  have  a  ditch  so  wide  that  a  man  could  walk  back 
and  forth,  and  turn  around  with  ease  at  the  bottom.  I  found 
a  stout  German  who  was  so  new  from  the  old  country  that 
he  could  hardly  speak  a  word  of  English.  But  he  would  do 
exactly  as  I  said  ;  and  when  I  showed  him  how,  his  every  ef- 
fort seemed  to  be  to  do  just  as  I  wished  to  have  him  do,  in- 
stead of  following  his  own  notions.  His  ditches  worked  all 
right,  and  he  soon  learned  to  make  very  good  speed.  I  would 
exhort  our  readers  to  read  again  and  again  the  instructions 
on  page  86,  and  all  along  there*.  Don't  give  up  and  go  back 
to  your  old-fashioned  ways.  Keep  on  until  you  can  do  it  all 
exactly  as  friend  Chamberlain  directs,  and  you  will  very 
soon  have  good  reason  to  be  glad  you  did  so. 

The  one  who  succeeds  in  underdrawing  must  be  more  or 
less  of  an  enthusiast  in  the  work ;  and  this  seems  to  be  true 
of  all  industries,  especially  those  of  a  rural  nature.  I  was 
pleased  to  hear  J.  M.  Smith  say,  that,  after  his  drains  were 
all  made,  he  watched  anxiously  for  a  heavy  shower,  to  see 
if  they  would  work  as  he  had  planned  to  have  them  do ;  and 
so  anxious  was  he  that  he  did  not  wait  for  the  rain  to  be 
over,  but  with  gum  boots,  rubber  coat,  and  umbrella,  he 
went  out  through  the  rain  to  one  of  the  silt-basins,  where  a 
large  number  of  drains  were  centered,  and  he  was  delighted 

*  Since  the  above  was  in  type  I  sent  a  big"  strong1  man  who  has  done 
ditching-,  and  thought  he  knew  how,  out  into  the  lot  to  dig-  where  I  had 
previously  drawn  a  string*  for  him  to  go  by.  It  was  two  or  three  hours 
before  I  got  ready  to  come  around  and  inspect.  I  found  him  making 
but  little  progress  in  trying  to  dig  the  hard  clay  with  a  pick.  I  took  the 
spade  given  him  at  first,  and  taught  him  to  throw  out  the  dirt  a  full 
spade  depth  almost  as  fast  as  he  could  handle  his  spade,  and  this,  too, 
in  ground  so  hard  he  thought  he  would  have  to  use  the  pick.  Had  he 
tried  to  push  his  tile-spade  into  the  ground  with  both  edges  in  the  clay 
it  would  have  been  impossible,  even  if  he  had  put  his  full  weight  (300 
Ibs.)  on  top  of  the  spade;  but  by  putting  only  one  edge  in  the  clay, 
leaving  one  edge  clear,  he  managed  it  easily,  and  the  dirt  dropped  from 
his  spade  without  a  bit  of  trouble;  whereas,  by  the  old  plan  the  clay 
would  stick  to  the  spade  so  as  to  have  to  be  cleared  off  with  a  trowel 
almost  every  time.  Why,  since  I  have  learned  how  to  do  it  as  friend 
Chamberlain  does,  I  find  it  just  fun  to  dig  in  the  hardest  ground,  and 
the  labor  isn't  severe  and  exhausting  either. 


TILEJ)RA1NAGE.  135 

to  see  every  one  of  them  pouring  its  proper  proportion  of 
water  into  the  basin,  while  the  main  outlet  leading  from  this, 
carried  the  water  away.  Each  line  of  tile  seemed  to  be  fully 
adequate  to  take  the  water,  even  from  the  heaviest  shower. 
After  you  have  worked  and  planned,  perhaps  many  months, 
on  a  piece  of  engineering  like  this,  what  a  satisfaction  it  is  to 
see  it  a  success  in  every  particular !  Friend  Smith  had  a 
problem  on  his  hands  of  more  than  usual  difficulty,  for  his 
field  of  forty  acres  is  very  nearly  level,  and  it  is  also  but 
a  very  little  higher  than  the  water  in  the  lake  which  is 
all  around  him  ;  therefore  his  drains  must  be  laid  very  ac- 
curately, on  an  even,  true  grade  ;  for,  as  there  was  but  little 
fall  to  be  secured,  there  could  be  no  very  great  variation  in 
the  way  of  ups  and  downs. 

DEPTH  OF  TILE,  ETC. 

I  quite  agree  with  what  friend  Chamberlain  says  in  regard 
to  the  depth  that  tile  should  be  laid.  In  our  locality  most  of  the 
upland  is  a  stiff  retentive  clay.  If  you  dig  a  hole  in  the  ground 
any  where,  it  will  fill  with  rain  water,  and  the  water  will  stand 
there  a  long  time.  On  account  of  this,  I  think  I  have  sever- 
al times  placed  our  tiles  too  deep  to  give  the  best  results.  It 
has  been  suggested  that,  after  a  year  or  two,  the  water  would 
find  its  way  down  to  them.  This  may  be ;  but,  all  things 
considered,  1  think  I  should  prefer  them  not  lower  than  2£ 
feet  from  the  surface,  as  a  rule.  In  order  to  get  an  even 
grade,  I  would,  of  course,  go  down  in  places,  3  or  even  3-£ 
feet ;  and  in  other  places  we  might  lay  them  as  near  as  2  feet 
from  the  surface.  In  my  recent  travels  through  Washing- 
ton, Oregon,  California,  and  Arizona,  in  going  among  the 
fanners  and  fruit-raisers  I  have  been  greatly  astonished  to 
find  how  little  the  teachings  of  one  locality  would  answer  for 
another  ;  and  not  only  is  this  true,  but  circumstances  are  so 
different,  sometimes,  that,  in  traveling  only  thirty  or  forty 
miles,  their  methods  must  be  greatly  modified  and  changed. 
In  the  great  West,  underdraining  is,  as  a  rule,  almost  uii- 


136  TILE  DRAINAGE 

known.  The  desert  soils  where  irrigation  is  practiced,  are 
so  loose  and  porous  that  the  ground  is  really  underdrained  by 
nature.  In  fact,  in  many  places  they  have  great  trouble  in 
conveying  the  water  in  irrigating- ditches,  the  soil  being  so 
porous  that  the  greater  part  of  the  water  is  lost  before  it  goes 
to  where  it  is  wanted.  In  fact,  at  Riverside  they  are  ce- 
menting the  bottom  and  sides  of  the  irrigating-canals,  and 
this  is  being  done  very  largely.  Now,  in  such  soils,  and 
especially  where  there  has  never  been  a  surplus  of  rains, 
except  for  a  brief  period  in  the  winter  time,  underdraining 
would  seldom  pay  expenses.  And  this  leads  us  to  a  method 
of  getting  an  outlet  for  underdrains  that  has  already  been 
touched  upon.  In  the  vicinity  of  Mammoth  Cave,  water 
never  stands  in  hollows  or  depressions.  In  fact,  in  passing 
along  on  the  railroad  we  see  hollows  between  the  hills,  with- 
out number,  and  no  visible  outlet  anywhere.  After  very 
heavy  showers  the  water  will  sometimes  stand  in  these 
basins  for  a  few  hours ;  but  it  usually  goes  down  through  the 
porous  soil  and  through  the  porous  rock  almost  as  rapidly 
as  it  collects  in  the  basin  between  the  hills.  In  some 
cases  I  saw  considerable  streams  go  down  into  such  a  hollow 
in  the  hills,  and  disappear  in  a  sink-hole  that  resembled  a 
well  without  any  bottom  to  it.  The  water  had  probably 
found  a  passageway  into  some  of  the  caverns  that  underlie 
that  large  tract  of  that  Mammoth  Cave  country.  Now,  in 
localities  where  there  are  no  caves,  there  are  frequently  por- 
ous strata  of  gravel  that  act  in  much  the  same  way  ;  and  in 
such  places  an  outlet  for  underdrains  may  be  found  by  simply 
digging  a  well  down  into  this  gravel.  Even  here  in  our  hard 
clay  subsoil,  with  soapstone  underlying,  we  drilled  a  well 
that  we  found,  by  actual  test,  would  take  quite  a  stream  of 
water,  when  it  was  once  turned  into  it,  immediately  out  of 
sight.  A  good  many  times  it  may  be  worth  while  to  experi- 
ment in  this  way,  where  it  is  desirable  to  get  an  outlet  for 
surplus  water.  On  page  104  we  are  told  how  friend  Terry 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  j37 

ran  the  water  into  a  gravel-bank,  and  thus  saved  the  expense 
of  making  a  deep  cut. 

OTTLETS     THAT     ARE     LIABLE     TO     P>E     FLOODED    BY  OVER- 
FLOWS,  ETC. 

There  is  one  spot  on  our  creek-bottom  grounds  where  we 
get  an  excellent  outlet  for  standing  water  by  running  a  tile 
into  the  deep  cut  before  spoken  of.  Now,  this  works  all 
right  while  the  water  is  low  in  Champion  Brook  ;  but  when 
it  rises  nearly  to  the  top  of  its  banks  during  a  freshet,  the 
same  tile  that  had  been  taking  the  water  away  lets  it  back 
on  to  the  low  land,  and  makes  a  pond.  To  remedy  this  we 
have  at  the  outlet  a  check-valve  made  of  wood,  with  leather 
hinges.  Ordinarily  the  valve  stands  a  little  open  to  let  the 
water  out.  When  the  water  rises,  however,  it  strikes  this 
hinged  door,  or  valve,  and  closes  it.  Of  course,  this  stops  the 
water  for  a  time  from  getting  out  of  the  underdrain  ;  but 
when  the  creek  goes  down  it  lets  the  water  out  as  usual. 
We  should  prefer,  of  course,  an  outlet  that  would  never  be 
covered  and  subject  to  back-water ;  but  under  the  circum- 
stances the  valve  is  better  than  to  have  the  tile  permanently 
open.  A  valve  to  open  and  close  by  hand  has  been  suggest- 
ed ;  but  as  this  requires  the  owner  to  go  out  in  the  rain  to 
manipulate  his  valves,  and  would  often  fail  to  receive  the 
attention  it  should  have,  we  consider  the  automatic  valve 
preferable. 

DANGER   FROM   STANDING   WATER. 

Perhaps  sufficient  has  been  already  said  in  regard  to  the 
damage  a  little  surplus  water  may  do  if  allowed  to  stand  for 
only  a  few  days  But  I  wish  to  mention  a  circumstance  of 
my  boyhood.  We  had  a  very  thrifty  young  cherry-tree,  one 
of  the  very  finest  I  have  ever  seen,  standing  not  very  far 
from  the  house.  Before  we  had  our  underdrains  properly 
fixed,  a  wooden  spout  carried  the  surplus  from  the  kitchen 
out  to  an  open  ditch.  During  a  wet  time  in  the  spring  this 
wooden  spout  became  disarranged  so  the  water  for  two  or 


138  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

three  days  poured  down  near  the  cherry-tree  mentioned.  In 
fact,  it  had  made  a  little  puddle  around  the  tree  before  any- 
body had  noticed  it.  For  fear  it  might  receive  injury,  an 
open  ditch  was  made  out  to  the  main  ditch,  to  take  the  sur- 
plus water  away.  But  we  were  too  late.  The  tree,  although 
it  had  commenced  to  put  out  its  buds  with  wonderful  thrift 
and  luxuriance,  came  to  a  standstill  and  died.  It  seems  to 
me  the  water  could  not  have  been  around  the  roots  more 
than  three  days.  I  have  seen  evergreens  on  our  present 
ground  killed  in  the  same  way.  They  were  planted  through 
a  depression,  where  water  stood  occasionally  during  very 
heavy  rains.  A  succession  of  heavy  rains  kept  this  place  full 
of  water  for  perhaps  48  hours.  Then  a  ditch  was  dug,  and 
some  tiles  put  in  ;  but  it  was  too  late— they  were  dead— died 
from  drowning,  i.  e.,  being  held  underwater  longer  than 
they  could  stand  it.  This  brings  me  to  one  of  the  main 
points  in  regard  to  surplus  drains.  On  our  rich  market-gar- 
den ground,  where  we  have  put  on  manure  year  after  year  at 
the  rate  of  forty  or  fifty  loads  per  acre,  the  ground  has  not 
only  become  very  rich,  but  very  soft,  and  easily  worked. 
Well,  in  gathering  the  crops  we  are  sometimes  obliged  to  go 
over  the  ground  when  it  is  pretty  wet.  It  gets  tramped 
down  hard,  to  the  great  detriment  of  the  growing  crops. 
Our  plant-beds,  however,  are  never  tramped  on.  As  they 
are  only  six  feet  wide,  one  can  reach  from  the  edges  to  the 
center  of  the  bed,  and  the  boys  are  forbidden  to  ever  set  foot 
on  this  thoroughly  tilled  and  heavily  fertilized  soil.  The 
consequence  is,  we  get  crop  after  crop  from  these  beds,  with 
very  little  digging  up  more  than  is  required  by  the  rake. 
The  beds  being  only  six  feet  wide,  and  paths  between  them, 
they  make  the  most  perfect  surplus  drainage.  In  fact,  the 
beds  are  raised  perhaps  four  inches  higher  than  the  path. 
This,  of  course,  makes  them  dry  out  quicker  during  a  very 
dry  time.  But  here  comes  in  our  big  windmill,  with  its  1600- 
barrel  tank.  Hydrants  are  located  among  the  plant-beds 
about  100  feet  apart,  so  50  feet  of  hose,  with  the  sprinkler  at- 


TILE  DRAINAGE  139 

tached,  enables  us  to  see  that  the  crops  on  our  beds  never 
suffer  from  a  lack  of  water  ;  neither  is  the  soil  ever  tramped 
down  so  as  to  prevent  the  roots  from  being  able  to  "  breathe1' 
through  the  loose  soil.  It  may  be  that  this  is  not  exactly 
the  way  to  express  it,  but  you  all  know  what  I  mean.  I  think 
one  reason  why  we  can  not  compete  in  fruit-growing  with 
California  is  because  we  have  not  the  loose  porous  soil  they 
have.  We  can,  however,  have  it  more  loose  and  porous  than  it 
now  is  by  keeping  it  at  all  seasons  of  the  year  free  from  stand- 
ing surplus  water.  In  our  locality  I  have  often  seen  a  field 
plowed,  harrowed,  rolled,  and  cultivated  until  it  was  light, 
loose,  and  fine,  and  in  just  the  trim  for  putting  in  the  seeds. 
Very  likely  it  had  been  just  rolled  the  last  time  preparatory 
to  running  over  the  seed-drill.  Now,  if,  at  this  stage  of  pro- 
ceedings, a  tremendous  rain  sets  in,  so  that  the  whole  field  is 
made  like  mud,  it  will  settle  down  so  hard  and  compact  that 
the  chances  for  a  good  crop  are  just  about  ruined.  The  only 
real  remedy  for  such  a  state  of  affairs  is  to  wait  until  the 
ground  is  dry  enough  to  plow  and  harrow  and  roll  again.* 
If,  however,  the  field  had  been  thoroughly  underdrained ,  the 
rain  does  comparatively  little  damage.  With  surface  drains, 
such  as  I  have  mentioned,  the  damage  is  still  less ;  but  the 
owner  must  keep  off  the  ground  with  his  team  and  tools  un- 
til it  is  sufficiently  dry  to  work. 

TOOLS  FOR  UNDERDKAIN1NG. 

Our  friends  may  have  noticed  that  some  of  the  tools  on 
page  82  have  not  been  described  or  mentioned.  This  is  be- 
cause some  of  them  are  of  my  own  selection.  Fig.  2  is  a 
Dutch  hoe.  One  of  my  men,  fresh  from  the  old  country, 
brought  such  a  one  along  with  him.  The  others  laughed  at 
it,  and  said  Fig.  8  was  a  good  deal  better,  and  answered  every 
purpose.  When  it  came  to  filling  up  the  drains,  however, 
our  German  friend  got  his  hoe  (Fig.  2)  and  soon  convinced 

*The  delay,  especially  if  it  keep  on  raining,  may  be  about  as  disas- 
trous as  to  go  ahead. 


140  TILE  DRAINAGE 

them  that,  in  his  hands  at  least,  it  was  a  wonderful  tool,  and 
therefore  the  boys  took  a  liking  to  it  for  many  other  purposes. 
It  will  dig  up  ground  many  times  in  a  way  to  make  it  quite  a 
substitute  for  spading,  and  do  it  easier  and  quicker.  Fig.  5 
is  a  cleaning-out  spade,  and  is  very  handy  in  many  emergen- 
cies. Fig.  3  is  used  as  a  substitute  for  Fig.  1.  It  is  mostly 
used  for  cleaning  out  the  bottom,  and  grading  it  for  laying 
small  tile,  and  I  like  it  rather  better  than  Fig.  1.  The  ad- 
justable joint  in  Fig.  1  is  a  good  thing  if  it  were  not  so  apt 
to  be  loose  and  rattling.  It  always  makes  me  nervous  when 
any  tool  is  the  least  bit  loose  on  the  handle. 

On  page  91  we  have  illustrated  and  described  a  three-tined 
ditching-spade.  I  am  ashamed,  however,  to  think  that  our 
artist  did  not  succeed  in  making  a  better-looking  cut  of  it — 
like  Fig.  6,  on  page  82,  for  instance.  Well,  after  what  friend 
Chamberlain  had  written  on  page  92, 1  purchased  one  of 
these  spades  and  sent  it  to  him  to  try.  Here  is  his  reply  in 
regard  to  it : 

SKELETON   SPADE. 

Mr.  A.  I.  Root— Dear  Sir:-— I  express  you  the  skeleton  spade 
to-day.  On  the  whole  the  regular  ditching-spade  seems  to  me 
better  than  the  skeleton  for  my  land.  This  particular  one  has  too 
narrow  a  blade,  except  for  bottom  course,  and  the  shoulder  is  so 
narrow  that  the  foot  slips;  also,  the  ribs,  or  tines,  bend  top  easily. 
They  were  bent  when  it  came,  and  I  straightened  them  with  care, 
but  they  are  not  stiff  enough,  even  for  a  skilled  ditcher,  in  our 
soil.  I  would  not,  however,  decide  wholly  against  them  until  I 
try  the  wider  and  shorter  size  in  a  very  wet  and  sticky  time  and 
place.  Thus  far  my  men  and  I  like  the  solid  or  regular  spades 
best;  but  in  Iowa  soils  the  skeleton  spade  is  just  the  thing. 

Hudson,  O.,  March  15,  1892.  W.  I.  CHAMBERLAIN. 

We  have  used  the  spade  a  little,  but  not  very  much,  how- 
ever. But  I  am  inclined  to  think  that,  where  it  is  properly 
made,  as  friend  Chamberlain  suggests,  i.  e.,  made  for  our 
soil,  it  will  clear  better  and  cut  easier  than  the  one  figured 
on  page  82,  No.  6.  I  should  be  glad  to  hear  from  friends  who 
have  used  the  three-tined  spade.  It  seems  to  me  the  idea  is 
a  progressive  one. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  141 

CONCLUSION. 

Before  closing  I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  visited  friend 
Chamberlain  at  different  times  during  his  work.  lie  is  not 
very  far  from  friend  Terry,  so  when  I  go  to  see  one  I  take  in 
the  other  also.  I  have  seen  that  beautiful  orchard,  and  no- 
ticed the  great  difference  in  the  trees  that  are  on  the  tile- 
drained  land,  and  I  also  saw  that  Baldwin  apple-tree,  page 
49,  just  before  they  were  going  to  gather  the  fruit.  It  was 
a  sight,  Ftell  you,  and  I  never  in  my  life  before  saw  such  a 
lot  of  beautiful,  round,  smooth,  perfect  apples  as  I  saw  at 
friend  Chamberlain's.  One  of  the  most  interesting  sights  to 
me  was  the  item  mentioned  and  illustrated  on  pp.  44,  45,  46 ; 
namely,  the  idea  that  tiles  helped  the  crops  but  hindered  the 
weeds.  When  I  was  first  told  it,  I  felt  like  making  light  of 
friend  Chamberlain's  enthusiasm,  which  I  thought  then  was 
running  away  with  him.  He  took  us  first  where  we  saw  a 
heavy  growth  of  clover  and  timothy,  with  no  weeds  or  plan- 
tain. Then  we  looked  at  the  ground  that  had  not  yet  been 
tiled,  and  I  soon  took  in  the  state  of  affairs.  There  are  cer- 
tain kinds  of  weeds  that  we  expect  to  see  appear  on  poor, 
hard,  dry  ground.  In  fact,  they  are  seldom  seen  elsewhere. 
There  is  but  little  grass  or  clover  or  any  thing  else  on  such 
ground,  and  I  had  always  supposed  that  the  rank,  hardy 
weeds  had  killed  out  the  grass.  If  I  am  correct,  however, 
the  real  state  of  affairs  is  this  :  The  excessive  wetness  first 
kills  out  the  timothy  and  clover  in  the  same  way  it  killed 
that  cherry-tree  and  our  evergreens.  When  the  timothy  and 
clover  are  out  of  the  way,  the  hardy  weeds  that  can  stand 
the  wet  come  in  and  cover  the  ground  ;  therefore  we  have  a 
rational  and  reasonable  explanation  given  for  the  fact  that 
we  get  rid  of  weeds  by  thoroughly  underdraining  our  land. 

This  book,  like  the  various  books  written  by  friend  Terry, 
is  not  theory  or  book  farming,  like  some  books  that  have  been 
written  on  agriculture,  for  it  is  only  a  description  of  what  I 
have  seen  repeatedly,  and  what  you  too,  dear  reader,  may  see 


142  TILE  DKAINAGE. 

for  yourself  if  you  feel  like  taking  the  time  to  visit  Terry 
and  Chamberlain.  Although  they  are  busy  men,  and  their 
time  is  exceedingly  valuable,  I  think  I  am  right  in  saying 
they  are  ready  to  sacrifice  almost  any  thing,  where  they  can 
be  of  use  in  making  themselves  really  helpful  to  the  average 
farmer.  In  fact,  they  both  have  been  giving  their  lives  to 
this  work,  and  I  suppose  they  expect  to  give  them  to  the  end. 
I  do  not  mean  by  this  to  say  they  give  their  time  right  along 
for  nothing,  and  without  pay.  If  we  American  people  allow- 
ed them  to  do  so  we  should  be  ashamed  of  ourselves. 

If  this  little  book  has  been  the  means  of  giving  you  more 
faith  in  and  love  for  farming  ;  more  faith  in  and  love  for 
your  fellow-men,  and  more  faith  in  and  love  for  the  great 
Creator,  who  gave  us  our  land  with  all  its  grand  and  glorious 
possibilities,  then  shall  we  be  satisfied,  and  feel  that  our 
labor  has  not  been  in  vain. 

Your  friend,    A.  I.  BOOT. 

Medina,  O.,  March  17,  1892. 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  413 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I.— INTRODUCTORY. 

The  scope  of  the  book.— A  primer  in  size  and  conciseness.— On  tile 
drainage,  not  all  drainage  nor  all  related  subjects. — Drainage  a 
progressive  art. — Much  of  the  past  now  discarded.  Tiles  have 
superseded  all  other  materials  for  underdrainage. — Round  tiles 
best.— Author's  practical  experience  and  observation.— Tiling 
not  so  difficult  as  sometimes  represented,  yet  needs  an  engineer 
for  difficult  problems.  Pages  3  —  6. 

CHAPTER  II.— WHY  DO  WE  TILE-DRAIN  LAND?  THE  THEORY. 

Do  all  lands  need  tiling?— Horace  Greeley's  dictum.— Underdrain- 
age better  than  surface  drainage. — What  is  "  surplus  water  "? 
Upon  and  in  the  soil.— Roots  need  air.— Capillary  attraction  in 
lamp-wicks,  sponges,  soils.— Air-spaces  in  soils.— Capillary  wa- 
ter and  hydrostatic  water. — Porosity  and  slight  filtration  of 
ik  loose  "  soils.— Typhoid  germs.— Artesian  wells.— Capillarity 
and  hydrostatic  pressure  oppose  each  other.— Scientific  reasons 
for  removing  surplus  moisture  down  through  the  soil:  1.  Fits 
fields  for  less  crooked  tillage;  2.  Removes  surplus  in  as  well  as 
on  the  soil;  3.  Saves  loss  of  fertility;  4.  Even  adds  fertility;  5. 
Helps  warm  the  soil;  6.  Lengthens  the  season  of  tillage  and 
growth  of  crops;  7.  Increases  extent  of  "root  pasturage;"  8. 
Helps  disintegrate  and  "  fine  "  the  soil;  9.  Diminishes  "  winter- 
killing "  of  wheat,  clover,  etc.,  by  *'  hoar  frost "  or  "  stool  ice  ;  " 
10.  Diminishes  effects  of  drouth;  11.  Often  diminishes  flood 
damage;  12.  Improves  the  healthfulness  of  drained  regions. 
Pages 7  —  28 

CHAPTER  III.— WHY  DO  WE  TILE -DRAIN  LAND?  THE  FACTS. 
DOES  IT  PAY? 

Author's  first  cobble-stone  drain.— First  tile  drain.— First  thor- 
ough tile  drainage  less  than  $23  per  acre,  and  first  wheat  crop 
$46  per  acre.— Naturally  gave  the  "  tile-fever."— Actual  effects 
of  tiling:  1.  Upon  orchards;  "died  of  wet  feet;"  2.  Upon 
wheat;  3.  Upon  clover;  4.  Upon  value  of  manures  and  fertiliz- 
ers; 5.  Upon  permanence  of  fertilizers  and  crops,  and  upon 
weeds;  6.  Upon  barn  room;  7.  Upon  the  fruitage  of  apple-trees. 
Pages 28  —  50 

CHAPTER  IV.— DOES  TILLAGE  PAY  BETTER    THAN   GRAZING? 

Not  exclusive  tillage.— Combined  with  stock -keeping.— Agricultu- 
ral development  of  the  human  race.— The  savage  state.— The 
nomadic.— The  agricultural.— The  horticultural.— Population 
of  Ohio  per  square  mile.— Of  Belgium.— Exclusive  grazing  in 
Ohio.— Tillage  with  stock-raising.— The  tiling  of  clayey  soils  a 
necessary  basis  for  tillage  and  rotation.— Manures,  fertilizers, 
clover,  rotation,  and  good  tillage  must  follow  to  win  success.— 


144  TILE  DRAINAGE. 

Brief  history  of  drainage  on  author's  farm.— Effects  of  tiling, 
tillage,  tree-planting,  etc.,  upon  the  rainfall.— Soils  that  most 

need  drainage,  thorough  and  partial.  Pages 51  —  62 

CHAPTP;R  V.— WHERE  TO  DRAIN. 

General  localities  and  kinds  of  soil.— Cat-swamps,  swales,  etc.— 
Location  of  mains  and  laterals  in  a  system  of  thorough  drain- 
age.—Mains  follow  but  somewhat  straighten  the  dry  brooks  and 
swales.— The  direction  of  laterals.  Two  rules. — Criticisms  of.— 
Discussion  of.— Illustrations,  Figs.  18,  19. — How  the  surface- 
water  seeks  the  drains.— Dead-furrows?— Rapidity  of  absorp- 
tion and  filtration.  Pages 62  —  71 

CHAPTER  VI.— WHEN  TO  DRAIN. 

1.  When  can  we  afford  it?  Debt  for  it?  Sell  part  to  tile  the 
rest?  Gradually,  year  by  year,  and  economically. — 2.  Best  sea- 
sons of  the  year.  Tiling  in  winter,  late  fall,  and  early  spring.— 
Advantages  of.— Preparation  for.— Details  of  in  next  chapter. 

Pages 71  —  74 

CHAPTER  VII.— How  TO  DRAIN;  THE  TILES. 

The  tiles.— Shape.— Material,  and  hardness  of  burning. — Porosi- 
ty.—Experiments  concerning.— The  water  enters  drains  how 
and  where? — Hard  tiles  more  surely  durable.— "  T  joints"  and 
44  Y  joints"  needed  for  hard  tiles.— Better  for  any  kind  of  tiles. 

Pages 74  —  78 

CHAPTER  VIII.— How  TO  DRAIN;  THE  TOOLS. 

Hand  tools  or  machines? — Field  trials  of  horse  and  steam  power 
machines.  Greatly  hindered  by  stones  in  drift  soils  or  bowlder 
clay.— Not  suited  to  winter  work.— But  winter  the  time  of 
leisure  for  drainage.— Shall  the  farmer  buy  a  digging-machine 
as  he  does  a  mower  or  twine-binder?— Shall  he  hire  one? — Hand 
tools;  spades;  scoops,  or  cr umbers;  groove-cutters;  span-level; 
filling  hook  and  fork;  crowbar,  pick,  shovel,  etc.  Pages.78  —  84 
CHAPTER  IX. — How  TO  DRAIN  ;  THE  MANIPULATIONS. 

Locating  the  drains. — Wet-weathei  observations. — Drainage  en- 
gineer; grade-stakes,  map,  etc. — Winter  drainage. — Beginning 
to  dig.— Where?  How?— The  main  first  laid.—"  T  "  and  "  Y  " 
joints,  when  laid.  The  laterals.— The  digging.— Skill  by  prac- 
tice and  thought. — *"  Burying"  the  spade. — Keeping  one  side- 
edge  in  sight.— How  to  sink  the  spade;  and  preserve  the  true 
grade;  and  use  the  "  crumber."— The  foot-iron. — Placing  the 
earth  so  as  to  fill  in  easily. — The  curved  motion  in  lifting  the 
earth.— Centrifugal  force  helps  keep  the  earth  on  the  spade.— 
Skill  or  knack  required  to  dig  a  clean,  true  ditch  rapidly,  easi- 
ly, and  well. — The  three-tined  ditching-spade  for  stoneless, 
mucky,  sticky  soils.— Establishing  close  grades.— "Sighting- 
stakes"  and  '"boning  rods. "Fig. 25.— Cutting  the  groove  for  the 
tiles,  Fig.  26.— Depressions  in  the  drains  endanger  stoppage.— 
Use  of  the  span-level  in  getting  grade.— Of  soil -water. —Of  wa- 


TILE  DRAINAGE.  145 

ter  brought  on  purpose.— The  work  to  endure  for  centuries,  if 
well  done;  for  about  two  years  if  not  well  done. — Laying  the 
tiles.— Covering  them.— Tramping  the  earth.— How  the  water 
enters. — The  upper  ends  of  laterals. — Protecting  outlets  from 
land  and  water  vermin,  reptiles,  etc.,  by  screens.- -Have  as  few 

outlets  as  possible.  Pages 84  —  100 

CHAPTER  X. — How  TO  DRAIN;  SPECIAL  PROBLEMS. 

Map  of  thorough  drainage  of  36-acre  field  on  author's  farm,  Hud- 
son, O.— Handling  flood- water  from  land  further  up  the  slope.— 
Ponds  as  balance-wheels. — "  Catch-water  pond  "  and  "  catch- 
basin."— ''Contour  lines."— Study  of  the  map.— Drainage  into 
reservoirs  sunk  into  gravel  subsoil.— By  mains  running  into 
gravel-knolls,  and  with  no  outlets. — Protecting  joints  from  en- 
trance of  quicksand  or  ''  silt."— Establishing  grade  by  line  in- 
stead of  boning-rods  and  sight-stakes.— Quicksand-pockets; 
boards  to  prevent  the  tiles  from  sinking;  silt-basins,  or  man- 
holes.— Boards  under  tiles  at  outlets.— Tiles  rather  than  stones, 
even  where  stones  are  plentiful  and  of  good  shape.— But  if  you 
use  stones,  lay  a  clear  channel  for  water. — Roots  in  tile  drains.— 
Not  unless  the  tiles  are  wet  when  the  soil  is  dry.— Former  belief 
as  to  porosity  of  tiles  changed  by  later  careful  experiment.— 
Roots  of  aquatic  trees.— Conveying  spring  or  swamp  water 
through  dry  soil.— Slop-drains,  water-closet  and  sink-drains, 
etc. — Drainage  of  low  lands  by  steam  or  wind  engine  pumping. 
—Letter  quoted.— Scarcely  within  the  scope  of  this  book. 
Pages «. 100  —  112 

CHAPTER  XI.— ESTIMATES;  SIZES  OF  TILES;  COST  OF  DRAINING. 

Size  of  tiles  to  drain  given  areas.  Nature  of  the  problem.— Sud- 
den and  heavy  rainfalls.— English  estimates  too  small  for  the 
United  States.— The  "  factor  of  safety."— Actual  rainfalls  on 
author's  farm.— Sizes  of  tile  that  "  handled  "  it  without  surface- 
wash.— Author's  rule  for  size.  Rule  by  C.  G.  Elliott,  in  his 
"  Practical  Farm  Drainage."— Rule  by  Geo.  E.  Warring,  Jr.,  in 
his  "Draining  for  Profit  and  Draining  for  Health."— Tables  by 
French  and  by  Klippart  in  their  books  on  drainage.— Present 
tendency  toward  large  tiles  wise. — Author's  conclusions. — Cost 
of  drainage  if  done  economically.— Actual  cost  itemized  for  15 
acres.— Proper  depth  in  tenacious  clays  in  moderate  climate.— 

In  more  porous  soi Is  and  colder  climates. . .  Pages 112  —  120 

CHAPTER  XII.  CONCLUSION. 

Good  tillage  should  follow  tile  drainage.— The  author  an  advocate 
of  drainage,  but  not  from  personal,  pecuniary  interests. — Has 
tried  to  give  theories  correctly  and  facts  truthfully.  Personal 
letters  not  practicable. — Where  and  how  to  buy  tiles. — Begin 
the. work  of  tiling  gradually  and  economically  (if  your  land 
needs  it),  and  be  guided  by  observed  results.  How  to  find  what 
is  in  this  book,  or  what  it  has  on  any  particular  point.  Test  the 
book's  advice  by  trial.  Pages 120  —  122 


146  TILE  DRAINAGE. 


INDEX. 

Air-spaces  in  soil 9,  10,  22 

Attraction,  capillary 8,  10 

A  rtesian  wells 12 

Agriculture,  development  of  among- men 51,  £2,  53 

supports  a  greater  population  than  grazing 53,  54,  55 

Belgium,  population  to  the  square  mile 53 

Boning-rods,  or  sighting-stakes 92,  93 

Catch-basin .  102 

Country  Gentleman,  quotations  from 6,  96,  118, 112,  117, 118 

Capillary  attraction  in  soil,  sponges,  etc 8,  9,  22,  23 

*•         water 10 

Cook.  Prof.  A.  J 1 

Camp,  H.  B 110 

Clover  saved  from  winter-killing  by  tile  drainage 22 

Drainage— tiles  superseding  other  material 1 

a  progressive  science 1 

down  through  the  soil,  why  better  than  off  from  it... .  13,  14, 15 

41     aids  in  pulverizing  it 21 

"     prevents  winter-killing 22,  23 

diminishes  the  effects  of  drouth 25 

(sometimes)  diminishes  the  suddenness  and  violence  of  floods  26 

improves  the  health  of  a  region 27, 135 

author's  first  experiment  in  cobble  drainage  29 

tile  "         29,30 

effects  of  on  orchard  trees 31—38 

wheat 38,  39 

clover ...  39-41 

value  of  manures  and  fertilizers 43 

permanence  of  timothy  seeding  and  on  weeds.  46 

barn  room 47,  48 

tools  for  (see  Tools) 78—81 

of  bogs ]  03,  104 

by  steam  pumping  instead  of  gravity  outlet Ill,  112 

cost  of— estimates 117—119 

Drains  (tile),  location  and  direction  of  mains 63 

laterals 64 

straight  down  the  slope  or  not 64 — 70 

dead-furrows  in  connection  therewith  ? 68 

rapidity  of  absorption  and  nitration  by  soil  into .70,  71 

when  to  lay  them  (the  question  of  affording  them) 71,  72 

44       "      (best  season  of  the  year) 72,  73,  74 

construction  of— the  tiles,  material,  shape,  hardness,  etc 74 

porosity  of  tiles;  transmission  of  water 74—76 

weight  of  tiles. . .     77 

beginning  the  digging  (where?)  method  of  digging 85 

establishing  close  grades 92,  93, 106 

cutting  the  groove  and  laying-  the  tiles 94 

protecting  the  outlets 96 

depth  of 108,  117,  119,135 

distance  apart 117,  120 

without  open  outlets 104 

roots  in 108,  109 


TILE  DKAINAGE.  147 

Debt  with  relation  to  drainage  5,  120 

Dry-earth  mulch 33,24 

Drouth  diminished  by  drainage 25 

Engineer,  employment  of  in  drainage 5,  92, 133 

Evaporation,  a  slow  and  cooling  process 17,  18 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  quotations  from 1,  21 

Elliott,  C.  G 115 

Fertility  preserved  and  increased  by  tile  drainage 15, 16 

Frost  action,  effect  011  soils  and  crops 2'?,  23 

French  on  drainage,  quoted 21,  98,  99,  116 

Greeley ,  Horace,  his  dictum  about  drainage 7 

Growing  season  lengthened  by  drainage 19 

History  of  drainage— why  not  given  here 4 

Hydrostatic  water 10,  11,  23 

Hoar  frost  explained 22,  23 

Heat  makes  the  air  hold  more  moisture 24 

Heal tli  improved  by  drainage.   .  27,  28, 132 

Hall,W.J3 1U8 

Johnston,  John,  reference  to 5 

Johnson,  B.  F.,  views  on  drainage 30 

Joints  of  tiles  covered  to  exclude  silt 105 

Killmer,  Charles  S Ill 

Klippart  on  drainage 116 

Leveling  for  drains 84,  85,  92,  93,  94,  106 

Laterals,  upper  ends  of 96 

direction  of 64 

ending  in  open  ditches 107 

Main  drains,  location  of 63 

Motley,  J.  L.,  reference  to 4 

Map  of  thorough  drainage 101 

Mulch  of  dry  earth  retards  evaporation 23,  24 

Main  drains,  direction  of 63 

ending  in  gravel  beds  with  no  outlet 104 

National  Stockman  referred  to 6,  103 

Ohio— The  Ohio  Farmer,  references  to 6,  105,  121 

meteorological  bureau 15 

population  to  the  square  mile 53 

exclusive  dairying  in 53,  54 

mixed  or  diversified  farming  in 54,  55 

Outlets,  protecting  from  vermin 96 

ending  in  gravel  subsoil 1U4, 13tf 

Primer,  this  book  designed  to  be  in  size  arid  conciseness 3 

Pulverization  helped  by  tile  drainage 21,22 

Paper  to  cover  tile-joints . . . .  1U5 

Personal  letters  of  advice .     121 

Population  to  the  square  mile  as  affected  by  tiling  and  tillage 55,  57  •' 

Quicksand 106  v 

Rain  fall  on  author's  farm 15,16 

increased  by  drainage,  tillage,  and  tree-planting 57,  58 

Rural  New-Yorker,  reference  to 6 

Roots  of  plants  need  air 9,  10 

grow  deeper  in  tiled  soil 19,20 

obstructing  drains 108—1 11 


148  TILE  DEAINAGE. 

Saturation,  drainage  lowers  the  line  of 33,  23 

Swan,  Robert  J.,  reference  to 5 

Sisson  Brothers,  reference  to 5 

Stockman,  National,  reference  to 6, 103 

Surplus  water,  how  to  remove  and  why 7, 11, 15,  16, 17,  18—31, 137 

Soi Is,  what  onas  need  tiling 7,59,63,136 

temperature  of  affected  by  tiling 16,  17 

Sighting-stakes,  or  boning-rods 93,93 

Superphosphates  more  effective  on  tiled  land 55 

Scope  of  the  book 1—5 

Silt  or  sand  working  into  tile  drains 105 

Silt-basins        106,  107 

Storrs  &  Harrison  Co.  referred  to 106 

Stones,  use  of  for  drains. .  5,  39, 107, 108 

Sizes  of  tiles,  rules  for  determining  size  needed,  and  given 113—116 

Thawing,  a  cooling  process 17 

Tile  drainage— see  Drainage. 

Tiles  superseding  other  material  for  drains ..3,4 

44      round,  superseding  other  shapes 4 

where  to  buy..  131 

*'      durability  of  and  material  for 4,  74—77 

proper  sizes  for  various  areas 113—116 

Tiling  and  tilling  not  to  be  confounded .    6 

what  soils  need  it 7 

Tillage  of  surface  to  retain  moisture 23—35 

**       does  it  pay  better  than  grazing? 51 

Terry,  T.  B.,  references  to 1,  5,31,  60,  104 

Typhoid  germs  saturating  soil  and  polluting  spring  water 11, 12 

Trowbridge,  W . 105 

Tools  for  drainage— hand  or  machine? 78 

Trials  of  machines 78,  79 

Stones  interfere  with  work 78,  79 

Mud  and  frost  interfere  with 79-81 

Common  plow  for  deep  farrow  the  only  team-machine  used. ...  79 

The  hand-tools,  spade  for  first  course 81 

Bottoming-spade ....81,  139, 140 

Scoop  for  first  course —   81 

The  bottoming-scoop,  or  groove-cutter 82 

The  span-level 83 

The  tile-hook 83 

The  four-tined  filling-hook 83,83 

The  three-tiiied  ditching-spade 91 

The  foot-iron 89 

Shovel,  crowbar,  pick,  iron  rake,  etc 84 

Sighting-stakes  and  boning-rods 93 

Townshend,  Prof .  N.  S 110 

Vermin  in  drains 96—99 

Velocity  of  flow  in  tile  drains  affected  by  grade  and  friction  . .   113 

Wet  feet,  plants  and  trees  dying  of 8 

Winter- killing  of  wheat,  clover,  etc.,  diminished  by  drainage 32 

"     explained 32,23 

Wind,  why  more  drying  than  a  still  air 24 

Western  Reserve,  much  of  the  soil  benefited  by  drainage 61,  62 

"         author's  experience  with  its  soils 62 

Waring,  G.  E 106,  115 


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What  to  Do,  ^  How  to  be  Happy  While  Doing  It, 

The  above  book,  by  A.  I.  Root,  is  a  compilation  of  papers  published  in 
GLEANINGS  IN  BEE  CULTURE  in  18^6,  '7,  and  '8.  It  is  intended  to  solve 
the  problem  of  finding  occupation  for  those  scattered  over  our  land, 
out  of  employment.  The  suggestions  are  principally  about  finding 
employment  around  your  own  homes.  The  book  is  mainly  upon  mar- 
ket-gardening, fruit  culture,  poultry-raising,  etc.  I  think  the  book  will 
be  well  worth  the  price,  not  only  to  those  put  of  employment,  but  to 
any  one  who  loves  home  and  rural  industries.  Price  in  paper  covers, 
60  cts. ;  cloth,  75  ct-s.  If  wanted  by  mail,  add  8  and  10  cts.  respectively. 

A.  I.  ROOT,  MEDINA,  O. 


NOW      IN      PRESS. 

—A  TREATISE  ON- 

TOMATO   CULiTUHE, 


J.  W.  DAY,  OF  CRYSTAL  SPRINGS,  MISS. 

WITH   AN   APPENDIX  BY   A.   I.   ROOT,   ADAPTING  IT  TO 
TOMATO  CULTURE  IN  THE  NORTH   AS 
AS   IN  THE  SOUTH. 


This  little  book,  which  we  expect  to  have  about  the  size  of  the 
present  manual,  is  interesting  because  it  is  one  of  the  first  rural 
books  to  come  from  our  friends  in  the^  South.  It  tells  of  a  great 
industry  that  has  been  steadily  growing  for  some  years  past; 
namely,  tomato-growing  in  the  South,  to  supply  the  Northern 
markets.  The  little  book,  which  is  to  be  very  fully  illustrated, 
gives  us  some  pleasant  glimpses  of  the  possibilities  and  probabili- 
ties of  the  future  of  Southern  agriculture.  Even  though  you  do 
not  grow  tomatoes  to  any  considerable  extent,  you  will  find  the 
book  brimful  of  suggestions  of  short  cuts  in  agriculture  and  hor- 
ticulture, and  especially  in  the  line  of  market-gardening.  The 
price  will  probably  be  35  cents;  by  mail,  40  cents. 

A.  I.  /?OOT,        -        -        MEDINA,  O. 


THE  DRAINAGE  JOURNAL, 

A  48-PAGE  MONTHLY, 


— DEVOTED   TO- 


FARM  DRAINAGE,  WHEN  AND  HOW  TO  DRAIN, 

ROAD  IMPROVEMENT,  AND  MANUFACTURE 

OF  DRAIN  TILE. 


NOW    IN   THE    THIRTEENTH     YEAR    OF    ITS    PUBLICATION. 


PRICE  ONE  DOLLAR  A  YEAR. 

SAMPLE  COPY  TEN  CENTS. 


Address  DRAINAGE  JOURNAL, 
Indianapolis,  Ind. 


The  beautiful  cuts  on  the  back  and  front  cover  of  this  little 
book  were  kindly  furnished  us  by  the  editor  of  the  above  journal. 

A.  I.  ROOT. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


RENEWED  BOOKS  ARE  SUBJECT  TO  IMMEDIATE 
RECALli 


ROT 

CD  LIBRARY 

EJAN7    1974 


JCD  UBRARY 

JUN  1  u 


^"^  L/BRAR/ 

SEP  2  7  1979 
OC1  9         HtC 


LIBRARY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slip-50m-5,'70 (N6725s8) 458- -A-31/5 


I 


N9  714040 


Chamberlain,*  W.I. 
Tile  drainage. 


S621 
C5 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


3  1175  00368  5792 


